Abstract
This article reports a case study on the development of mother-infant tickling play and ticklishness, with special reference to the intention reading of the infant. Naturalistic observations of mother-infant play were carried out for 3 months in the home of a 5 month-old infant. The results indicated that alternate looking between the tickling mother’s hands and her face appeared at 6.5 months. The infant also showed an expectation of ticklishness before the actual touch. A triadic relationship was characterized by rapid alternation of the infant’s visual orientation between a target object and the mother, a sign of understanding another person’s intention. The situation observed here had a similar structure to that of a triadic relationship focusing on the same target and sharing intention. But it was also somewhat different because the target was not an external object. Based on narrative sharing, the mother and infant seemed to use the mothers’ hands as a target of mutual intention two months before the appearance of a true triadic relationship. The present findings may be taken as an evidence of a ‘proto-triadic relationship’ (Negayama, 2011) which is interpreted as the precursor of a true mother-object-infant triadic relationship.
