Introduction

It is not necessary to be a language expert to understand the vital importance of its appropriation for human development. For ^{Vigotski (2001}) there is no possibility of integral cognitive contents or thought domains without language, nor integral possibilities of language outside of human interactive processes. The Russian author, an eminent psychologist and humanist, not only dedicated himself to the study the language functioning, its constitutive and structuring role in the formation of consciousness, but his greatest contribution in this field was to describe and explain the process of its internalization, repositioning the biological factor before the social one and recognizing the role of social relations and education in this process.

In Vygotsky's texts, the author's intention to answer some questions specific to that moment is evident. How does the process of appropriating language occur, considering the direction from exteriority to interiority? And why is this aspect so important for human life in society? Furthermore, what is its role in formal education in the years following birth? Answering these questions is the objective of our study presented here.

The language internalization process: the consciousness formation

According to ^{Cheroglu and Magalhães (2020}), to understand the development of the human baby we must have as our axis the reasoning of the contradictory unity between nature and culture, going beyond the naturalistic simplifications still so prevalent in current science. These understand human beings as if they were guided biologically apart from culture and its constitutive instruments. Having a historical-dialectic conception as the basis of our study, we understand that man at birth does not have properties that ensure, by itself, the achievement of what could characterize him as a human being.

According to ^{Martins (2020}), Vygotsky was a pioneer in the search for explaining the transformation origins of elementary psychic functions, bequeathed by nature and transmitted phylogenetically, by higher psychic functions, which, although not biological, result from the relations that the individual establishes with Others (caregivers, family members, friends, peers, known and unknown people, close or distant), with the culture of a given society, in a given socioeconomic, geographic, temporal space.

In this direction, Luria^{4 (1981}) was one of the authors who made numerous contributions, as he studied both its appropriation, continuing the propositions left by Vygotsky, and its disintegration based on his studies of brain-injured patients followed by him during the Second World War. For the author, the emergence of language in the individual is one of the determining factors for the transition from animal behavior to conscious human activity. In his studies about the brain function, Luria points out that external supports, or historically generated devices, are essential elements in establishing functional connections between individual parts of the brain, making them components of a single functional system, that is, historically generated measures, including language:

[...] determine new links in the activity of the human brain and it is the presence of these functional links, or, as some call it “new functional organs” (Leontiev, 1959) that is one of the most important characteristics that differentiate the functional organization of the human brain in comparison with the animal brain. It is this principle of construction of functional systems of the human brain that Vygotsky (1960) called the principle of “extracortical organization of complex mental functions”, meaning with this term that all types of conscious human activity are always formed with the support of aids or external assistants’ instruments (^{LURIA, 1981}, p.16).

^{Luria (1981}) reaffirms the assertion that our structure as humans is dependent on what happens outside the organism, what Vygotsky called extracortical organization, that is, our organization from birth is dependent on our relationships with others.

Vygotsky theorizes that everything that is internal (intrapsychic) was once external (extrapsychic). But how does this appropriation of what is external to become internal happen? We know that this process is not direct or simple, requiring a unity that permeates the thought and the word. What is this existing unity that does not allow itself to be decomposed? For ^{Vigotski (2001}) the unity between both can be found in the word meaning. For the author, meaning is what shapes language and thought. He explains that the word never refers to an isolated object, but to an entire group or class of objects, for this reason every word is a latent generalization. For Vygotsky, meaning is an inalienable part of the word and “Without meaning, the word is not a word, but an empty sound. Deprived of meaning, it no longer belongs to the realm of language” (^{VIGOTSKI, 2001}, p.10).

Understanding this process, the language internalization, that is, the incorporation of the meaning of words, is made possible through the incorporation of the linguistic sign, a symbolic process that allows human beings to deal internally with what was previously external, thus enabling their distancing from the immediate and concrete. However, mastery of the sign does not result spontaneously, from the simple relation with the object in practice, but rather from a constant work of interaction, guidance and intentional attention from the adult directed to the baby. In other words, the person who makes the sign available for appropriation is the Other, a social being who already dominates it. In this way, the appropriation of language is a cultural process that allows the duplication of the perceptible and concrete world, enabling the individual, from early childhood, to be provoked to new intellectual operations and new connections in the brain, what ^{Luria (1981}) called “new functional organs”.

For ^{Morato (1996}), the description of the language internalization process is one of the most important contributions of Vygotski's work, as it deals with the convergence between speech and thought - which is without a shadow of a doubt one of the most studied topics when we approach the topic of Language in author's works. However, this fact, which will occur at the end of the period called pre-linguistic, presents many details that will be discussed below when we present the psychological development called periodization by the author, in which we highlight the role of language and incorporate other authors who contribute to the theme of language appropriation.

Periodization and language development

^{Vygotski (1996}) emphasizes that the personality and the psyche development as a whole does not occur in an evolutionary, linear and maturational way. Rather, he explains that the anatomical-functional maturation of the different structures that make up the biological equipment is not sufficient to explain the individuals’ development. Through his theoretical review, laboratory and intercultural research studies, he was able to defend the thesis of the social formation of the psyche, and shed light on the formation of higher psychological functions. In this area, Vygotski (1931/²⁰⁰⁰) argues that “Cultural development overlaps with the processes of growth, the child’s maturation and organic development, forming a whole with it” (p. 36). He understands that,

Both development plans - the natural and the cultural - coincide and amalgamate with each other. The changes that take place on both planes intercommunicate and constitute in reality a unique process of biological-social formation of the child's personality. As organic development occurs in a cultural environment, it becomes a historically conditioned biological process. At the same time, cultural development acquires a very peculiar character that cannot be compared with any other type of development, since it occurs simultaneously and together with the process of organic maturation and since its bearer is the changing infantile organism in the process of growth and maturation. Children's language development can be serve as a fortunate example of this fusion of two development plans: the natural and the cultural (VYGOTSKI, 1931/²⁰⁰⁰, p. 36)

The cultural plan objectively presents itself through the use not only of organic equipment, but of “artificial organs”. The human being is superior to all animals since the spectrum of his activity expands unlimitedly thanks to the creation and use of tools. Thus, his brain and his hand allow the system of his activity to expand unlimitedly - and human conduct is altered as the creation and/or use of tools come between him and nature, between him and the Others. They are his “inorganic organs”.

With these assumptions, we can consider that development occurs amid periods of psychological crises, when skills or capabilities already developed need to be transformed due to new external demands, in accordance with biological development and the individual's insertion in new activities. ^{Vygotski (1996}) uses the term “age dynamics” to designate these periods that, although demarcated by chronological ages, their perspective is that of psychological age. In this sense, psychological crises, in a dialectical way, that is, internal and external, social and individual, distinct and sequential at the same time, promote the SELF development as a psychological subject and the mental construction of reality. For the author, this transformation in psychological development, understood as periodization, refers to a constant movement of structuring, overcoming and transformation. The role of language becomes essential, as it is linked to the emergence of consciousness and the establishment of social relations in children. In this way, the human baby will go through a process of transformation in order to adapt to the demands of the culture of which it has become a participant and to understand this transformation, or how we got to the functioning we have today, a very comprehensive look is needed that takes into account knowledge of physiology, psychology, linguistics, among other knowledge areas, in a dynamic and systemic way.

We find in Vygotsky's later texts, between 1933-34 in Obras Escogidas (1996, p. 261), the denomination of periods of crises in human development, described as follows:

Post birth crisis

First year (two months-one year)

First year crisis

Early Childhood (one year - three years)

Three-year crisis

Preschool age (three years-seven years)

Seven Year Crisis

School age (eight years-twelve years)

Thirteen years’ crisis

Puberty (fourteen years-eighteen years)

Seventeen years’ crisis

The first stages of development are called First Year and Early Childhood by ^{Vygotski (1996}), which last until the third year. In this study, we will address the period that goes from the Post Birth Crisis to Early Childhood, as we consider that understanding these first phases of periodization, in which we will highlight the role of language, is the key to understanding its complex appropriation. Initially, we will highlight the periods that precede this appropriation, itself, and the psychological, physiological and linguistic aspects that are dynamically involved in this process. The psychological crises described by Vygotski (1996) refer to critical periods of biological and psychological transformation that promote the development of higher nervous functions. Here we will deal with the initial periods of life, that is, from postnatal to the first year of life and the importance of language in this process.

Post Birth Crisis

For ^{Vygotski (1996}), the child's psychological development begins with birth and the critical age begins shortly after birth, in which the baby is physically separated, but remains biologically linked to the mother, that is, the postnatal period represents an intermediate period between uterine and extrauterine development, a period of transition to successive periods of development.

The newborn baby is dependent on the caregiver for any and all functions such as feeding, mobility, hygiene and even changing its position in the crib. Vygotsky defines the postnatal crisis as the transformation and separation from the embryonic period to the first year of development. The biological turning point is between the second and third month of life, when many biological changes and social interactions occur. At this stage, sleep begins to count for fewer hours, food intake becomes more avid, new forms of behavior appear and the first activities of the sensory organs begin to act simultaneously. In brain development, the baby's behavior prevails in the instinctive form of elementary activities.

The first social reactions are manifested in babbling, which initially presents itself as reflexive sounds, coos, swallowing sounds, burps, and, subsequently, vowels, which begin to appear at the end of the first month and gain strength in the following months with manifestations of screams.

For ^{Vygotski (1996}), at this stage, the baby begins to experience the world in a more playful way and focuses on the other's gaze. The nervous system development during this period is very intense, triggered by a significant increase in brain weight, resulting in several important qualitative changes. Imitations of human facial expressions show that nerve functions are acting in the human brain in an elementary way, as the baby turns to the other's speech. It is important to highlight that the newborn's first expressions such as grimaces, screams, movements, which encompass the baby's entire body, indicate satisfaction or discomfort, hunger, sleep and/or pain, being, initially, instinctive reactions that are not directed at something or someone, but which express the baby's states of need.

In this sense, ^{Lisina (1987}) highlights that from the beginning the adult addresses the baby as a real person, talks to him, caresses him, and tirelessly searches for any sign that can deduce that the little one has understood him. For this author, in the post birth period, the baby's need for communication with the adults around him is non-existent, and does not arise by itself. In other words, for the author, it is not about the baby discovering who he depends on and establishing the necessary relations with that person for his survival, but rather, the adult, being essential for the baby, gradually introducing him to a sphere of interrelations and creating the necessary links for the subsequent communication development. Thus, if the child's need for the adult constitutes an indispensable condition for the appearance of communication in the child, the adult’s anticipatory initiative, who addresses the baby as if it were a subject and who actively models his new childish behavior, constitutes the decisive condition in this process, and, together, both are sufficient for communicative activity to appear.

^{Vygotski (1996}) indicates that at the end of the first month, or at the beginning of the second, there is a turning point in the child's development. The author points out that this occurs when a smile appears in reaction to the human voice. The baby moves towards the subject that talks to him, pays attention to his voice and gets upset when they move away from him. At this stage we find ourselves at the upper limit of the postnatal period and enter a new stage.

First year

After the postnatal period, the baby still appears, at first glance, to be a non-social being, as it lacks the fundamental means of human communication, that is, language. During this period, although he presents some sounds and movements, these are not intentionally directed at the other person. It gives us the impression that in the postnatal period the baby is a merely biological being lacking human characteristics. However, ^{Vygotski (1996}) points out that this thought is totally inadequate, as, for him, there is a totally specific and peculiar sociability in this period.

As noticed, in the first year, the baby is unable to satisfy his most important needs alone, therefore, the main route of access to all his needs is others. Practically all of his conduct is intertwined with the social, as it depends on adults in all circumstances - everything that the baby can later do for himself can now only be carried out by others in a collaborative situation. In this sense, the Russian author states that the child's first contact with reality is socially mediated, so we can define the baby as a maximally social being, although, paradoxically, he has minimal communication capabilities.

For ^{Vygotski 1996}), at the end of the second month, the baby seems to overcome the passivity phase and begins to show interest in sensory stimuli, especially the voices of other people. According to ^{Cheroglu and Magalhães (2020}), in response to the baby's primary actions, the adult responsible for him quickly learns to identify the needs that such reactions express and can meet them. By attending to the newborn's primary reactions as if they were social reactions, directed at someone, the adult includes him in the communicative activity, anticipating it and promoting it. According to the authors, “it is the adult's actions in response to the newborn's manifestations that shape their expression, introducing them to a joint activity, shared by both” (p.142).

The other's role as a communicative partner is crucial for the baby's development. In this sense, it is important to detail here that the baby's oral expressions, which begin with reflexive and vegetative sounds, will gradually be characterized and undergo transformations, and at the end of the first month, in a more elongated form, vowels appear. At this stage we still do not have consonants and vowels in babbling forming syllables, such as “ma-ma” or “pa-pa”, this will only happen in the second half of life. On the other hand, for its emergence to occur later, it is necessary to highlight the importance of relations established with adults in the first months.

From the first months, the baby is on the way to the complex appropriation of language. In this process we can observe that one stage will always be linked to the other, that is, one stage ends up preparing the other, although not in a linear way. However, it is important to highlight that the idea of continuity between the initial stage of babbling and the first words is not a consensus within language acquisition theories. ^{Jakobson (1972}), a Russian linguist, declares that there is no continuity between babbling and the child's first words, however, in opposition to the discontinuity idea⁵, authors such as Oller (1976) contest this fact, demonstrating in their research that sounds and syllables structures of canonical babble closely resemble those of meaningful initial speech.

Therefore, from the perspective taken in this article, of continuity, it is necessary that the baby has performed, for example, initial babbling such as cooing, elongated vowels, screams, to reach babbling with syllables, and what will trigger this production is reciprocity from the other, an adult or someone more experienced, in relational situations. In this sense, it is necessary for parents or guardians to be attentive and able to be responsive to the baby's manifestations, because, as ^{Leal (2010}) emphasizes, the parents' imitation of the sounds produced by the babies will make the baby feel stimulated in reproduce them. Thus, productions will become more consistent, movements more organized and exchanges with the adult more meaningful, generating mutual pleasure. In this sense, Leal (2010) points out that the baby seems to recognize that the echoes that appear in the environment, as a result of the parents' imitation of their production, thus increase the experience of their perceptions and make them feel stimulated to produce. It is noteworthy here that all the manifestations of those responsible in this initial phase are extremely important for the later stages of language production and consequently the effective communication of the baby with his caregivers.

For ^{Lisina (1987}), it is common to observe the joy that a baby of just a few months shows by smiling and moving his body when a person, even if he is not close to him, directs his attention by caressing him tenderly. However, the author points out that “[...] the evolutionary possibilities in each period have their limits and that if the adult advances too much, his actions will not find adequate responses” (^{LISINA, 1987}, p. 283). As an example, he points out that addressing a three-month-old baby with excessively verbal communication becomes completely fruitless, because, at this stage, the baby only captures the expressive aspect of language, that is, at this stage, the musicality and expression of the language. The interlocutor's face translates the message.

This initial relation between the baby and the emotional social world, through interaction with others, allows him to represent the causal relations between his actions and the responses of the environment. ^{Vygotski (1996}) mentions that around five months the baby begins to master his own body, posture and movements, leading him to seek more contact with other humans; he begins to show active interest in the outside world.

In the second half of life, she feels the specific need to communicate, and her interest in human beings is due to the fact that she recognizes that all her needs can be satisfied by others. The active desire to communicate is manifested in seeking the other's gaze, with a smile, with babbling, with movements of the limbs (arms and legs) and with crying. ^{Vygotski (1996}) points out that around the second half of the first year a special characteristic begins to emerge: imitation. This can be observed both in their motor postures and in their language production, and it is at this stage, after the sixth month, that we find babbling with consonants and vowels, referred to by linguistics scholars as canonical babbling.

Language acquisition researchers ^{Oller (1980}) ^{Eilers; Oller; Levine et al. (1993}) corroborate Vigotski (¹⁹⁹⁶) in the assumption that the period in which canonical babbling, the name given to babbling with consonant and vowel, appears after the second half of the first year. However, this will only be possible if there is an active relational situation in which the baby and adult are face-to-face and in which the baby can imitate the adult's movements. The importance of this event, at this stage, is crucial, as canonical babbling is considered the gateway to the baby's meaningful speech ^{(Oller, 1980}). This period is considered both by contemporary researchers of language acquisition, as well as by ^{Vygotski (1996}) and Vigotski (²⁰⁰¹) as pre-linguistic.

^{Leal (2010}) states that when the baby starts to repeat the words “mama”, “papa”, he seems to be aware that he is causing a reaction in the other. Normally parents relate these first productions to the significance the semantics of the words “papai” and “mamãe”, a fact universally recognized by researchers in language acquisition. We know that the production of the segments /m/ and /p/, nasal and stop respectively, both bilabial, are the simplest productions in a child's phonetic inventory and therefore the first that normally appear after vowels. However, the fact that they are recognized by parents as productions referring to the designations of the words mom and dad will naturally reinforce them. On the other hand, it is important to highlight: for the baby to advance in this acquisition process beyond standard babbling, that is, for the baby to move towards the first meaningful words, there must be systematization of interactional situations, and this can occur through of conversations with voice modulation, mutual imitation, games, songs and others.

Intentional and relational situations oriented towards the other are, at this moment, crucial and will make all the difference in this process. We want to draw attention to this point, because for some parents, guardians and early childhood education professionals, this engagement is not necessary, because for them the process of appropriating language is natural and biological, that is, spontaneous, and therefore it will happen regardless of their actions regarding the child. Based on the theories assumed in this study, discursive neurolinguistics and historical-cultural theory, there is no possibility of the appropriation of language occurring outside of mediated interactional situations, which is to say that its origin is extra-cortical, that is, it is outside the organic limits of the brain.

Quintino-Ayres (²⁰¹⁰) points out that Vygotsky, in his conference on October 9, 1930, presented a revolutionary formulation for the time. He says that, like logical memory and voluntary attention, language is not the result of an innate activity, but rather structured in the human brain in a relational process with another human being. We can consider that what appears at first glance to be a natural event, the complex process of language appropriation, is actually full of details and specificities.

At this point it is important to highlight that professionals who work with children, especially early childhood, need to be aware and trained about the importance of face-to-face engagement from an early age, transmitting to them in an affective way vocal contours where the melody is the message.

Continuing the process of language appropriation, after the production of canonical babble, with consonants and vowels, we have the production of the first word, however, there is not yet some constant relations between the signifier and the signified, that is, at this stage the same word can mean several things. It will only be at the end of this crisis, in the beginnings of early childhood, that words will have more stable and constant meanings. This period in which there is no specific designation for each word was called by Eliasberg (1928), cited by ^{Vygotski (1996}), as “infant autonomous speech” and the first person to recognize and describe this speech was the naturalist Charles Darwin, in 1881. Vygotski (¹⁹⁹⁶) mentions that although Darwin did not deal directly with the development of children's speech, but because he was a great observer, he noticed, when observing the development of his grandson, that the child, before moving on to the systematized verbal period, uses a peculiar language.

Darwin, cited by ^{Vygotski (1996}), described some peculiarities of this speech and the first of them consisted in the fact that there was no phonic correspondence for the utterances produced in relation to the speech conventionally used by adults. The author mentions the example of producing the utterance “ua” to designate a duck that was swimming in a lake. The second peculiarity was that in addition to the words not having a phonic correspondence to conventional speech, there was also no specific meaning. This is demonstrated by the fact that his grandson later began to use “ua” to refer to spilled milk, wine in a glass and other liquids. At another point, the child began to name “ua” to designate the design of a bird coined on an old coin and later all the circular objects that resembled the coin. Another peculiarity of autonomous speech is that the child's communication with others is only possible if people know the meanings of their words.

We can note that this peculiar speech observed by the British naturalist is what we commonly observe in children up to around two years of age, that is, their speech becomes incomprehensible to people who do not systematically live with them and we can say that the mother or caregiver becomes, unquestionably, an interpreter for the child. This fact happens because, in addition to the non-regularity in correspondence, articulation and meanings, until the mastery and stabilization of the rules of the phonological system occurs, many deletions, substitutions and assimilations in children's productions will occur at a later stage, thus accentuating difficulty in understanding by the adult interlocutor. At this stage we can find very large variability in children's productions, that is, we can observe some children aged one and a half with greater stability in their word production, and we can find children aged three with great instability in their productions. We may ask ourselves: why does this happen? We consider, based on the theories assumed in this work, that this greater or lesser variability is the result of the children's interactional experiences, their relations and possibilities of acting effectively as real interlocutors in their mother tongue. It is important to remember that although we are here measuring chronological age, for ^{Vygotski (1996}) this process is analyzed through moments of crisis, psychological and not chronological states.

We emphasize that the instabilities or variations in this process will depend on the relationships established with the child and that already at this stage some children spend half a day, sometimes the whole day, in daycare centers or preschools, this way is of crucial importance, as already we emphasize that caregivers receive guidance on the importance of getting involved in dialogic situations from an early age in order to collaborate with the language appropriation process.

For Vygotsky, autonomous speech begins during the crisis of the first year, that is, that period of transition, when the child passes from the first year to early childhood. The author reports that if we observe the content of autonomous children's speech and the stage of thought to which it corresponds, we will reach the conclusion that it communicates an affective state not yet separated from perception, it communicates perceived impressions; it verifies, but does not unite, does not deduce, that is, there is no intellectual state in it. Therefore, there is still no stabilized internalization of the word as a linguistic sign.

At this stage, we can observe in the child's productions that a word can signify ify a sentence. For example, when a child says “boua” for ball, he may mean: “I want the ball”, “Let's play ball” “Where is the ball?” - depending on the situational condition. Linguistics authors such as ^{Grolla and Silva (2014}) call this word holophrase. ^{Vigotski (2001}) highlighted this fact when he presents the proposition that “[...] when assimilating the phasic aspect of language, the child moves from the parts to the whole. It is also known that, due to its meaning, the child's first speech is an entire sentence: a laconic sentence” (idem, p. 410). The author points out this fact to demonstrate that the phasic, external aspect, and the semantic, internal aspect, move in opposite directions; the phasic from the part to the whole, that is, from the word to the sentence, and the semantic from the whole to the part, that is, only later does it begin to dismember the thought, which appears as a whole, into smaller units.

Still during this period of development, we also come across intonation jargon, which is a situation in which the child emits a sequence of syllables as if he were producing a sentence. For Dromi (2020), jargon appears in children's speech around 12 or 13 months and is characterized by long sequences of syllables that contain varied and variable accent and intonation patterns. They sound like complete statements that carry the content of statements or questions, often occurring concomitantly with real words.

In this sense, we can say that jargon, although it is often disregarded by parents and even professionals because it does not carry a specific meaning in terms of words, plays a role of capital importance as it provides the child with the possibility, in a fluid way, through prosodic elements, demonstrate their needs and intentions, which are quickly interpreted by the caregiver as they occur in specific environments in a given the child’s activity. Furthermore, jargon seems to save space for words that, due to articulation difficulties, children have not yet mastered. ^{Scarpa (2001}) states that prosodic elements such as rhythm and intonation are quite present at this stage and considers that they are important expressive resources in the absence of lexico-grammatical resources. ^{Vygotski (1996}) states that the production of jargon occurs during the period of autonomous speech.

In this way, we can consider that the period from the post-natal crisis to the crisis of the first year is a very rich stage in the process of language appropriation and consequently for the child's psyche. It is a period of great importance in terms of the relational movement of the dyad, child and their caregiver, we can say that the entire subsequent process will depend on this phase.

In the next stage, after the crisis of the first year, at the beginning of childhood, the words will have more stable and constant meanings, however Vygotsky (reference) considers that the period of children's autonomous speech is an essential period in the development of every child so that they can reach the subsequent stages. For the author, without the formation of autonomous speech, the child would never move from the non-linguistic period to the linguistic one.

As the child approaches the end of the first year of life, intense changes will occur, as until the end of the first year they are in the pre-linguistic phase, and at the end of this phase we will have the stabilization of the word; thought and speech that until then walked separately, will be united in this new stage with the sign internalization. This intertwining will make the child take a qualitative leap, duplicating the perceptible world, making it possible to operate with objects in their absence. For Vygotsky, consciousness is born with language, as language, through words, enables the structuring of thought.

The first year crisis

^{Vygotski (1996}) states that the first-year crisis delimits the end of the baby's first year of life to the beginning of childhood and emphasizes that this moment is when the child begins to walk, speak and have initiative and will in the external environment. Moving with greater autonomy allows children new possibilities for exploring the environment and dealing with adults. In this sense, language plays a fundamental role, because even though they still use autonomous speech, the child at the end of the first year shows stability in some words.

The child, in this crisis, feels emotionally and mentally linked to the caregiver, who positions himself as the interlocutor of the relation and maintains a reciprocal and alternating dialogue, not only with others, but also with objects and events. This crisis will then be initially highlighted by the game that ^{Leal (2010}) calls “take-put, join-separate, appear-disappear”, situations very present in games and games, generating a repetitive and important model for stabilizing relations.

The child, therefore, needs a caregiver who is present, sensitive and attentive to their movements and intentions to create a safe relation that meets all their needs, naming, commenting and directing their actions. These adult movements, according to ^{Luria (1981}), will cause neurological connections to be established, thus causing new advances in the central nervous system, providing new learning.

In the transition from the first to the second year, acting on instruments, a manipulative object activity, arises in the relation with others and with this the possibility of manipulating and naming events, transforming lived reality into imagination. The more the child plays, the more he appropriates the instruments, the relation with others and the events of reality, needing to communicate more intensely with the external world.

In the first year of life, the adult is the center of the child's attention, however, at the end of the first year, objects come into play that the child, now with greater motor mobility, can reach. For ^{Vigotski (2001}), perception is the predominant function at this stage.

^{Vygotski (1996}) also chooses the word as a starting point to deepen the crisis of the first year, as it is directly linked to the appearance of childhood consciousness and the way in which the SELF is internalized as a subject of action in social relations. Vygotski (¹⁹⁹⁶) states that language and its meanings are developed with the child’s active participation. The beginning and end of language acquisition A child's autonomy demarcates the beginning and end of this first year of life, integrating according to ^{Leal (2010}), the notion construction of the SELF as a psychological subject and the idealization of the OTHER as the one who will always be present to respond to their initiatives.

The next stage, that is, at the end of this crisis of the first year and beginning of childhood, the words have more stable and constant meanings, thus moving towards the expansion of vocabulary and more effective use of syntactic rules around the age of three. ^{Vygotski (1996}) refers to this new language as authentic and states that what was achieved in the previous critical age does not disappear, on the contrary, it is transformed into more complex formations.

The process of appropriating thought and speech requires the establishment of mediations that must move towards increasingly more elaborate levels of abstract thought. The possibility of symbolization, based on the internalization of the sign, provides the possibility of duplicating the perceptible world, greatly expanding the world for the child. According to ^{Martins (2020}), the genesis of this development lies in everything that is made available and sensorial captured by the child in a tension between the concrete and the abstract, since, according to the author, it is this tension that drives the logical operations of reasoning.

It is important to highlight the role that others play in this construction because the use of words, which do not exist at the beginning of the baby's development, is what allows the child access to reality. In this way, all professionals involved with Early Childhood Education need to be in possession of this knowledge, understanding their crucial role with regard to the process of language acquisition and development, this powerful tool that will enable the child to access everything that has already been produced in our society.

Final considerations

By describing the language appropriations expected in Early Childhood (0-3 years), we seek to demonstrate how a certain advance in language is related to previous interactions, generating a dynamic foundation for subsequent learning. The activities of human beings become increasingly complex with each new period, therefore, identifying the phase, its predominant characteristics and the expected next steps, provides support so that one can direct and maximize the way to offer learning opportunities and, when necessary, specific intervention.

These theoretical elaborations presented allow us to think about the contributions to Early Childhood Education, which make up Basic Education, according to the National Education Guidelines and Base Law 9,394/1996. This law, in Article 29, states that this is the first stage of Basic Education, and its purpose is the integral development of children up to five years of age - in the physical, psychological, intellectual and social aspects, in a complementary role to the action of family and the community. Article 30 states that it will be offered in: “I - daycare centers, or equivalent entities, for children up to three years of age; II - preschools, for children aged 4 (four) to 5 (five) years of age.” Article 31 provides that “I - evaluation by monitoring and recording the development of children, without the objective of promotion, even for access to primary education…”.

In this way, what is exposed in this article, we pay attention to what the LDB states, but we seek to contribute so that a large number of young children can be impacted by quality educational services, with public policies focused on and investing in development possibilities. According to the 2022 School Census, there was a resumption of enrollments in 2022, post-Covid-19 pandemic, with growth of 8.5% compared to 2021. The private system had an increase of 25.3% in the last year (high of 29.9% in daycare and 20.0% in pre-school), and in the public system an increase of 3.5% (increases of 8.9% in daycare and 0.3% in pre-school), totaling 9,028,764 enrollments in both systems, between daycare and preschool (^{BRASIL, 2023}, p. 19).

When it is argued that the educational purposes foreseen by the LDB can reach all these children, in favor of quality Early Childhood Education, being inclusive and promoting development, these theories about language reveal themselves as a resource of the greatest relevance. Either because they can prepare the professionals who work with this large contingent of children, or to subsidize the families that educate them. When there is the intention of making the science produced accessible so that society has a better understanding of how individuals constitute themselves as humanized beings and the multiple determinations that are involved, it is clear how necessary it is to make explicit and explain how the appropriation of science verbal language, which leads to the constitution of verbal thought and other higher psychological functions, is fundamental.

What is exposed in this article raises several questions, some of which are aimed at its consideration in the composition of curricula/programs for initial and continuing training courses for teachers and other professionals who work or may work in Education, such as speech therapists, school psychologists and social workers - highlighting that the hiring of these last two in public education systems is provided for in Law 13935/2019. Furthermore, it is also important to pay attention to what is foreseen as a guide for working with young children regarding language development.