Caregiver-infant interactions

• Attachment

  strong, reciprocal emotional bond between two individuals.
• Key words

  -Proximity: stay physically close to the baby.

  -Separation distress: mum and baby become distressed when separated.

  -Secure based behaviour: infant will always come back to caregiver.

  -Stranger anxiety: stressed when left in care of someone unfamiliar.

  -Reciprocity: the mutual exchange of responses between an infant and their caregiver (back and forth communication).

  -Interactional Synchrony: the temporal coordination (respond in a timely manner) of behaviours between an infant and their caregiver interactions.
• Meltzoff and Moore

  -Aim: to investigate the age at which imitation occurs in a new-born.

  -Procedure: they videotaped 12-21 day old babies as watched an adult display one of three facial expressions and child response was filmed and identified by observers.

  -Results: they found an association between behaviour of adult and baby behaviour. They attempted to imitate what caregiver does.
• Tronick at al - Still face procedure

  -Caregiver and baby interact normally then caregiver is instructed to hold a 'still face' , doesn't engage in reciprocal interaction.

  -Reaction of baby is recorded

  -Firstly infant starts to try and get mothers attention by giggling and waving its arms towards them. Then they start crying and start to turn away.
• Isabella and Belskey:

  -Shows timing matters when responding to the infant.

  -Studied 153 mothers with their first born child. Forst obsereved when child was 3 months old. Did further observations up to 9 months.

  -Secure attachment was found when mother interacts in a timely and rewarding manner.

  -Insecure attachment was found when mother was less synchronous and unresponsive.