‘Visual Vivencias’ to understand subjectivity and affective connection in young children

Research on subjectivity and affect

Kirschner (2013) encourages social researchers to develop theories of subjectivity that acknowledges affective dimensions which includes feelings and emotions. When studying subjectivity is important that the researcher carefully chooses research methodologies that can include affect. In particular sociocultural researchers need to account “aesthetic - affective” dimensions of subjectivity (Kirschner 2013, p.233). Affect and subjectivity need to be studied as a whole and in connection with each other (Blackman 2010; Blackman and Venn 2010; Ticineto Clopugh 2010).

Very little research has been done in relation to how very young children experience everyday life across different societal institutions (Johansson 2011; Johansson and White 2011). When researching infant’s everyday life is important so that the researcher is able to develop an ethical stance to researching young children (Elwick et al. 2014; Johansson 2011a). This can be developed by listening in and looking deeply at infant’s experiences and the researcher must be aware of a “necessary tentativeness and humility concerning the limits of our insights” (Sumsion and Goodfellow 2012, p.315). Researchers investigating infants and toddlers worlds need to be sensitive about which research methods they use to investigate young children. It is also important that when analysing visual data, the researcher accounts that it is a challenging process and a “subjective and iterative endeavour” (White 2011, p.194). To understand subjectivity both methodologically and theoretically a cultural - historical approach is used to research how young children develop significant and affective relations and connections with each other.

Cultural - historical theory

Vygotsky (1998) explains how culture is a product of social life and development takes place in different social forms. In studying young infants, Vygotsky (1998) uses the concept of social situation of development which is connected to the care giving of adults. For very young children, their social situation of development it is very important for this period to develop close relationships with adults. At first instance, the adult care giving relates to infants biological needs. For example, infants need exclusive help of adults for situations such as feeding and changing clothes (Vygotsky 1998). The adults (such as parents) that are in close relationship with the infant develop a special form of relationship, as this interactions are of close proximity and intimate. Vygotsky (1998 p.215) explains “a completely unique form of social relations develops between the child and the adults around him”.

The infant and caregiver interactions are very unique “he is forced to maximum interaction with adults… but this interaction is nonverbal interaction, frequently silent interaction of a completely unique type” (Vygotsky 1998 p.216). In this unique form of relationship, the infant perceives and acts upon his field of vision and this is strongly connected to affect (Vygotsky 1998). Infants are always in situation of cooperation with the caregiver and their field of vision - what they see- is the adult and connected to affect. This raises important questions for pedagogy as how the caregiver, in this case how the father caregiver and is in close and affective relationship with a baby. This is explored later in this paper. The concept of affective connections as a theoretical concept is developed in this paper to understand subjectivity.

Affective connections and subjectivity

In his writing about remembering, Vygotsky explains how children “accumulate experience with respect to his own remembering” (Vygotsky 1997, p.116). Children have the ability to remember previous experiences with non-human objects (Vygotsky 1997). Through these children establish certain connections to previous experiences, for example the use of knife for cutting bread. The child gives a meaning to an object and also learns how to use it and depending of which cultural purposes the child gives meaning to. Even so, this explanation relates to an object, this can be similar to humans and how we make connections with each other through our everyday experiences.

Vygotsky (1997) describes the concept of remembering in relation to how children develop higher mental functions such as memory and how children are able to transition from remembering, to making new connections, to using verbal language (words) and to giving qualitative properties to what words signify.

In extending these ideas, Vygotsky (1997) explains the relations between sign and meaning to understand the complex path and transitions that children make into making new connections and discoveries with different objects. He gives an example, when children play, children are keen to give names to objects which includes qualitative properties of an object - e.g. soft, joyful. In play, children act and use objects (for example, any object might represent medicine). Children remember well the symbolic meaning given to a specific object. In play, there is a connecting link between signs and meanings as the child gives an object a meaning, the child is able to give a story and tell complex stories about people and objects. In play, Vygotsky (1997 p.119) explains “what is essential is that a child does not make a mistake in his play”. The child is wilful and certain about the connections he/she makes in play.

Vygotsky (1998) explains how experiences are important for children as they learn to make new connections between previous and new experiences, this helps develop their senses. In respect to sense, Vygotsky refers to how children are able to intellectually and affectively sense and understand these experiences. The concept of sense integrates the dimensions of intellect and affect with how the subject produces, configures and expresses him/herself to the world (González Rey 2009).

The connections children make are important for how they learn to relate to humans and non-human objects. The child’s perspective is important in how these symbolic meanings are created. Subjectivity allows to see the multiplicity of subjective forms children experience in everyday life. Sense expresses the unity of intellectual and affective processes related to the subject living experience (González Rey 2007).

González Rey (2002) explains human productions are organized according to the history of its protagonists. Therefore, a cultural - historical analysis of subjectivity is required in how young children in contemporary societies are able to make sense of different experiences that are subjective. Subjectivity is defined as a system of meanings and subjective senses that organize the psyche life of the subject and society (González Rey 2000).

Emotions become an important affective dimension to understand how children are able to intellectually and affectively connect through sensing the experiences they are part of. Emotions are produced subjectively “emotions become elements of sense acquiring a subjective expression…subjective sense as a type of emotional and self-organized unity of subjectivity that characterizes itself in relation to dominant meanings and emotions” (González Rey 2008 p.145). Subjective sense involves the subject’s emotional and symbolic processes as the subject configurates them as they appear in the moment of action.

Research in early childhood has not accounted this new perspective. Most research has focused on associating emotions to a certain quality such as children being angry or happy (Denham 2006) or children’s ability to learn and reading the emotions of others (Berhenke et al. 2011; Bosacki 2007; Denham 1986, 2006; Denham and Brown 2010). Further, other researchers have used attachment theory to explain children’s relationships with adults and how it influences their secure attachment relationships (Colmerm et al. 2011; Cortazar and Herreros 2010; Raikes and Thompson 2006; Zanolli et al. 1997). When discussing emotions in this paper, it is discussed from an affective dimension and related to sense and subjective expressions, as previously explained.

Research context

Ethics approval by Monash University was granted. Parents gave consent for their children to participate and gave permission to use the examples, images and analysis of these findings. As a researcher, it was hoped to create what Sumsion and Goodfellow (2012) explain, research that acknowledges the need of being tentative and humble with the analysis of the research data. The findings are tentative, they are not fixed or certain they are provisional. As babies in this research grow up they might reveal another aspect of how they see themselves. As a researcher, it was hope to gain babies consent through writing the findings and conclusions in a humble way. The researcher needs to be humble in reviewing the data and the data analysis needs to be done in close dialogue with parents when participants don’t speak, like babies in this research. There are elements of the data that remain unknown and in the limits of our own insights (Sumsion and Goodfellow 2012) and the researcher’s own subjectivity remains in making claims about it. The awareness of all these issues are important to be considered and hopefully this has been done in an ethical and respectful way for the participants.

The aim of the research was to investigate the everyday life of young children and how babies affectively relate to their worlds. The everyday life of baby Silvana was recorded at home. The participants in the study lived in Mornington Peninsula in Australia. Silvana’s family heritage is Mexican. At the time of the research, Silvana’s father was a stay home dad, self-employed and was equally involved of caring for Silvana.

Fleur was Silvana’s friend. Fleur’s family consisted of her mother who was Australian and his father was Dutch. Silvana and Fleur met in mother’s group since they were two months old. Mother’s group is organized by the local council and it’s a space where mothers meet to interact with each other and share experiences of being first time mothers. In the second example, Fleur met Silvana for a play date in Silvana’s house.

Subjectivity is constituted in action and our histories involve many people and characters (Díaz Gómez and González Rey 2005). A methodology that captures young children’s subjectivity sense is discussed with these two case examples. Two visual examples were selected to show how baby Silvana who is six weeks old (example one) and ten months old (example two) affectively relates to her father and her friend Fleur. The two example occurs in Silvana’s family home.

Case example 1: affective connection

The first example takes place at Silvana’s home. This takes place in an afternoon and it’s a moment of contemplation between Silvana and her father. This example develops in a period of one minute. This interaction begins silently as the father looks intensively at baby Silvana. They are sitting in a couch and looking at each other. Silvana responds, looks back and exchanges gaze. The father is smiling as he holds Silvana’s dummy. He takes in and out the dummy, when she opens her mouth, the father takes the dummy. The father is smiling all through the interaction as he pretend to put in and out the dummy in Silvana’s lips. Silvana responds to this fun and teasing game by opening and closing her mouth, and by making sounds of her own.

Image 1 and 2: Moments of intensity

The father is playing with dummy and then takes it out from Silvana’s mouth. The father opens his mouth and suddenly Silvana imitates her father which is also opening and closing his mouth. Silvana opens her mouth when the dummy is placed closer to her mouth. They are intensively looking at each other.

Image 3 and 4: Moments of affective exchange

Silvana says: “agu”

Father: “You want to talk don’t you”… (This occurs while he continues to put in and out dummy in mouth)

Silvana opens and closes her mouth and says affirming “mmm” as she closely looks at her father.

Image 5 and 6: Moments of affective connection

They now have focused on a sound and father say “jjuuu” and then Silvana “agu”. Silvana babbles and makes a sound “mm”. The father continues saying agu, Silvana moves her head to a side and the father puts dummy inside. And they never stop looking and contemplating each other silently as Silvana sucks her dummy.

In this example we can visually observe how the father and Silvana affectively relate to each other and this silent interaction develop from intensively to affectively exchanging to affectively connecting. At a very young age, Silvana is making strong affective connections with her father and her immediate world is about him. As Vygotsky (1998) explains young children develop a close relationship with those around them and this example shows the different moments of how the experience is affectively sensed and produced by them.

In this example, Silvana makes an affective connection with her father and her father with her. These emotions of love are subjectively express by the father in the interview, as they acquire a subjective expression that is communicated silently by both participants. This experience can be seen as another event in the everyday life of a baby. It is vital to pay close attention as the analysis becomes an iterative and sensitive process which is made subjectively and is characterised by multiple senses - non-human (dummy) and human (father/baby) made through the moment of making an affective connection. Silvana and her father make this connection silently and through creatively imitating gestures such as opening and closing their mouths.

This experience contains cultural meanings that are subjective. For example, Silvana’s father mentions how these experience is about having fun and is a game of teasing. Through being playful about taking dummy and putting it in and out, Silvana is able to communicate a strong motive of having it back through saying twice “mmm”. The father senses this as verbally communicating and he says “you want to talk don’t you”, which the subjective interpretation made by the father who closely relates to what Silvana which is affectively demanding his attention from him. As Hedegaard and Fleer (2009) explain demands arise between different intentions of persons and strong motives are characterized in engaging in different practices. Because teasing is a cultural practice valued through having fun and playing, the father teases Silvana with a dummy, an object that Silvana has created an affective relation and at the same time engaging with her father in an affective way.

Silvana’s father commented on this video clip, “I am teasing (or joking) with her, I love her, I am looking at a part of me… La estoy vacilando, la amo, ella es una parte de mi ser…” Through this comment it can be interpreted how the father is able to subjectively sense her experience with her daughter. The different moments to the family practices to show different affective dimensions such as having moments of intensity and moments of affective connection between parents and children, as the father expresses children are part of us.

These meanings are organized and configurated in different forms when doing the analysis with participants. The symbolic productions made from participants are beyond explanation. There are many symbolic and emotional productions made as the experience develops, and how the affective connection is made. The affective connection becomes stronger and more significant as the participants look more closely at each other, there are many moment of silence where the participants develop strong affects of love and appreciation which become “overwhelming” to verbalise as Silvana’s father comments.

Silvana and her father exchange looks and gaze with much intensity as they develop affective connections, this a strong motive which is love, the love parents have for children, and the love babies are able to express through reciprocally gazing at each other. Silvana as little as six weeks learns about ‘gaze’ is an important dimension of affectively connecting with people.

The following case example takes place between two infants and as they become more mobile different symbolic and emotional productions lead to developing strong affective connections.

Case example 2: building affective connections

In the following example, Silvana is establishing a relationship with Fleur for the past few months. Silvana has learned from her family home that exchanging looks and gazing when interacting with others is important when developing significant affective connections. This was seen in the last example with his father where she subjectively sense and configurated through intimate exchange with his father. This example contains moments of affective action and of building affective connections. This example shows the importance of the time needed for infants to be familiar with each other and in this interaction it is captured how it is believed an affective connection is created.

The example takes place in Silvana’s home, her mother is filming and Fleur is a guest. Silvana has already established a relationship with her mother and Fleur is familiar with both of them. Silvana is ten months and Fleur is nine months. Fleur is already crawling while Silvana is not yet. This is important as Fleur has more freedom to move around while Silvana needs to wait for Fleur to move closely to her.

Silvana and Fleur are playing on the mat. Silvana looks at Fleur while she plays with an object which she is chewing. Fleur is looking at something else, an open box with toys, then at an electronic toy that makes music. Silvana moves her hands and is making noise to what might mean to get the attention of Fleur. Very quickly Silvana leans back to what seems touch Fleur’s feet and at the same time Fleur turns to see Silvana’s mother and gives her back to Silvana. Fleur positions herself in front of the adult.

Image 7 and 8: Moments of affective action

Fleur positions herself in front of the researcher giving her back to Silvana and Silvana stays at the back. This is a good opportunity for Silvana to touch Fleur. Silvana touches Fleur several times and Fleur smiles. Soon after Silvana finishes, Fleur moves and Silvana leans back to touch Fleur. Fleur is looking at a box of toys and she grabs one.

Image 9 and 10: Moments of building affective connections

Silvana touches Fleur then Fleur turns around again and chews a toy and eventually after 56 s had passed Fleur kisses Silvana for a second. Silvana’s mum comments: “Fleur kissed you”. Then Fleur claps and Silvana keeps smiling and Fleur say “ahh”. Eventually, Fleur crawls to get more toys and Silvana observes what Fleur is doing.

In analysing this interaction there are different moments of affective action though patting, touching, kissing and intensively gazing. The infants have different affective attitudes toward this situation. In this everyday life playful activity, they both develop strong affective intentions and purposes for what they want to do. Silvana wants close interaction and eye contact from Fleur. Fleur is interested in exploring the new objects and in making connections with the adult that is taking care of them, Silvana’s mother. The way they are positioning creates different ways of active participation and creating moments of building affective connections.

Silvana in this example can be seen as very expressive and passionate and wants Fleur to join her in and almost share the same motive. The meanings they create are subjective as they are interpreted they can have different meanings to the infants. However, their actions are produced symbolically and emotionally and they progress as they subjectively sense each other’s intentions. On the other hand, mothers get to know their children well and Fleur’s mother also knows well Silvana. Fleur is relaxed and is able to account for Silvana’s intentions. Fleur accounts Silvana by kissing her.

It is important to acknowledge actions as part of subjective sense because “the processes of shaping a living system of actions, as in a subjective production” (González Rey 2011, 2011a p.272). Babies’ affective actions enabled them to create an affective connection between each other. For Silvana the forms of establishing an affective connection involved attention from Fleur. Silvana’s established this connection non-verbally through touching and exchanging looks which is an important value when interacting with her family. Fleur was able to take upon her perspective at the end and she finally gave a kiss and said “aahh”, this moments of action, Silvana is able to responds affectively through smiling. Both infant have strong will and affective motives and these placed demands towards each other, babies like Silvana and Fleur are able to resolve it in affective forms. They learned how their world consists of relationships with significant adults but also with significant others like them.

Their subjective sense in this example relates to their ability to read and interpret each other’s affective intentions through the actions and symbolic productions created in the moment of affective action. Practices and activities progress over time and because they are experienced intellectually and emotionally actions allow us researchers to understand subjectivity in how young children learn the ‘art of reciprocity’ with others.

The ‘art of reciprocity’ involves “the value of possessing awareness of how to engage with others with all parts of your being- including how children feel and think about each other and about what they play” (Ridgway et al. 2015). Through this example, Silvana in order to engage with others has to subjectively sense by being patient in getting a response back from Fleur. A minute can be a long time for these babies and it this example shows how time is an important element in babies building on affective connections with each other.