Enrobotment or toy robots in the developing brain

Based on the internalised “object” and using cognitive, clinical, neuro functional and engineering arguments, this workshop analyses the concept of “enrobotment”. Playing with objects/toys (including the imperceptible part, i.e., the shadow) implies that the objects/toys are part of the external environment,i.e., the “other”. The enrobotment signifies that object’s internalisation not only reflects the impact of the environment on child’s development but it also reverberates the echo of child’s representations. An intermediate object (including its shadow) is conceived in mind by the child him/herself. Having a high emotional value and forming an implicit/explicit autobiographical continuum in memory, it ensures the cohesion between the “self” and “other”, it authorises subjectification. The correlated representations allow the invention of ideas and concepts; motor and verbal actions including their intention prosper.Intention attribution to objects/toys constitutes a precursor of self-consciousness, as this intention, a specific anticipation, helps children to understand what it signifies to have a perspective. Recognizing what it implies to be a “self” is a parcel of envisioning mental states of “other”. At the antipode, autism can be considered as an antithesis of self consciousness. Children with autism cannot mirror the triadic relationship of “object-self-other”.