Abstract
I consider the developmental origins of the socially extended mind. First, I argue that, from birth, the physical interventions caregivers
use to regulate infant attention and emotion (gestures, facial expressions, direction of gaze, body orientation, patterns of touch and
vocalization, etc.) are part of the infant’s socially extended mind; they are external mechanisms that enable the infant to do things
she could not otherwise do, cognitively speaking. Second, I argue that these physical interventions encode the norms, values, and patterned practices distinctive of their specific sociocultural milieu. Accordingly, not only do they enhance and extend the infant’s cognitive
competence. They also entrain the infant to think and act in culturally appropriate ways. These physical interventions are thus arguably
the earliest examples of social practices that scaffold the infant’s cognitive development and shape the development of their cultural
education