Historicity in development

Human development entails the establishment, widening, and abbreviation of new behavioural and psychological phenomena. This leads to the central role of historicity in developmental science—a look at presently happening events in terms of their constructive borrowing from the past and anticipation of the future. We provide an empirical example of the process of abbreviation in mother-infant communication, and we analyse and discuss the characteristic transformation achievement encapsulated by this developmental step. The abbreviated format, abstract from its specific content of dyadic actions, emerges from the past history and projects into the future through the construction of the seeds of a “sign-manufacturer' in early communication process.