CONTATTO OCULARE, SGUARDO E INTERSOGGETTIVITÀ
Roberto Militerni
An aspect that needs special attention is the evolution of the «eye contact» behavior during development. Eye contact is particularly important in relationships, but it takes on different aspects during development. In the newborn there are a series of innate devices that immediately allow him to enter into a very intimate relationship with the caregiver. Among these devices there is certainly the «eye contact» behavior. Progressively, the value that «eye contact» has on the child largely depends on the emotional states that it has learned to associate with such behavior. What needs to be considered is that the child who is building social reality in his mind attributes emotional significance not so much to a single behavior, but to a complex configuration in which more «behaviors» are involved: gaze, mimicry, intonation of the voice, prosodic modulation, posture and so on. These aspects must be borne in mind when we try to build a therapeutic relationship with a child between 2 to 5 years old.
Keywords
Eye contact, attachment, joint attention, intersubjectivity, ESCS