This paper examines the role of affect, which is the experience of a feeling or emotion, in human development; its implication in the emergence of higher cognitive functions, including language; its importance as a mediator in interpersonal relationships and, specially, in the socialization of children. Henri Wallon and other contemporaries of his, such as Maturana, have examined this topic from a developmental perspective. This paper advances Daniel N. Stern's theory of the senses of self, understood as autonomous perspectives for organizing subjective experiences as referenced in theoretical and clinical developmental psychology for its description of concepts such as affect attunement, vitality affect, and amodal perception, among others, all very important for the comprehension of human relational processes. Further discussed are interventions based on affect stimulation through basic interaffective processes, known to be deficient in developmental disorders such as autism, emphasizing its relevance. We conclude that interaffectivity is an essential factor for healthy child development, an agent of socialization, and a powerful interventional resource in clinical work.
Affect; intersubjetivity; development; autism