ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses theoretically how interaction and turntaking can be seen as part of the sensorimotor circular reaction model. Early communicative development can be described as a cyclical sensorimotor process that, from birth, involves the global activities of both the infant and the parent. The analysis of sequences of sensorimotor behaviour derived from the proposed model was found to be fruitful for understanding the structure of protoconversational turntaking and the emergence of alternated turntaking at 3 months of age. With future refinements in the sequential analysis of the behaviours of parent and infant in the situation of interaction, more information about what constitutes protoconversation and how turntaking emerges will provide new insight into how communicative skills develop. Parent-infant interaction as a periodic cyclical process based on a biological rhythmicity of cycles of orientating toward the parent and then gazing away was postulated in the work of B. Brazleton, B. Kosolowsky, and M. Main.
