THE MODES OF RELATIONS AND CO-CONSTRUCTION OF COMMUNICATIVE RESOURCES ON BABIES LIVING IN DIFFERENT CONTEXTS OF RECEPTION.

Abstract

The foster reception arrangements are defined by the ECA (1990) as entities whose care services seek to prevent or accommodate, temporarily, children and adolescents whose rights have been violated. The purpose would be a place of transition until that child is sent to a foster family or return to his/her family of origin. Facing such situation, some questions are considered: Is it possible that different types of hosting - and consequently how these environments are organized and signify the children and their relationships -, may give rise to peculiarities in the co-construction of adult-child relationships? Mainly, how does the baby relates with and develops within this environment? Based on the interactionist assumptions of development, i.e., considering the subjective constitution from the dialogical relations established with the other and the environment, within an active and dialectical process, this research aims to investigate, in two different modes of reception - Foster Home and Foster Family - the ways of building relationships of infants with the adult. The goal is to focus the dialogue between them and the resources used in the communicative dynamics of relations. As these observations and questions involve the investigation of complex social phenomena, considering aspects of the individual, organization, structure, group, among others, we chose a methodology which could capture the complexity without losing the procedural aspect - namely, we choose to work with multiple case studies. In each type of hosting, two babies (between 5 to 10 months old) will be observed. The major route of data collection will be video recording in those contexts. Videotapes will be made once a week for three months. Along with this procedure, there will also be carried out documented analysis and interviews, and such methodological tools are intended to allow us to understand the meanings of home that are immersed in both, macro-political scenario (using the normalizations and legislations) and micro-political (current conception in quotidian of the two hosts). Therefore, these will help to give meanings to elements present in the recordings and actions. The analysis of the collected data will be held from the cultural-historical conception of human development, which is the constitution of the subjectivity on a relational perspective and the semiotic universe as a mediator of this process - particularly, the Network of Meanings perspective will be used as theoretical and methodological tools. Micro-genetic analysis will be used to understand the (trans) formations occurred in the ways of relating and communicating to the babies. The project is part of a group of studies investigating the development in the first two years of life. Besides the theoretical contribution about child development, this work can help build knowledge to serve as support for training activities of individuals who work in social care programs.