introduction

• attachment

  ?: strong, reciprocal emotional bond between an infant and a primary caregiver
• interactional synchrony

  mirroring what another is doing, including facial expressions and body movements
• reciprocity

  responding to the actions of another with a similar action

  
  

  important for teaching a child to communicate as the parent can better care for them due to ability to detect certain cues from the baby, meaning they can respond to their needs sooner and more effectively
• features of caregiver-infant interactions

  1. sensitive responsiveness - responding to signals from the infant
  2. imitation - infant copying and minicking the actions of the caregiver
  3. interactional synchrony - infant reacts in time with cargiver's speech
  4. reciprocity - back and forth interactive between infant and caregiver
  5. motherese - slow, sing-song way of speaking to an infant
• research into interactional synchrony - Meltzoff & Moore

  • used infants as young as 2 weeks old & observed them via camera
  • observed a parent do 2 or 3 of four actions
  • independent observers viewed the footage and states what they say the infant actually do
  • double blind experiment
  • to check if they really did poke their tongue out at a certain time - PCG or experimenter may be biased
  • positive correlation with imitation was noted
• research into interactional synchrony - Isabella et al

  • assessed interactional synchrony in 30 infants
  • PCG dads using Meltzoff and Moore method
  • better sychrony was show by those with high attachment to their primary caregiver
  • shows that interactional synchrony is important and linked to strong, securely attached relationships
• pseudo-conversation

  when a caregiver speaks to an infant and allows them to respond - teaches turn-taking

  PCG will usually speak in motherese