caregiver-infant interactions

• what are the caregiver-infant interactions?

  • reciprocity
  • interactional synchrony
• reciprocity

  both the caregiver and the baby respond to each other's signals

  each draws out a response from the other

  can be called 'turn-taking'
• alert phases of reciprocity

  when babies signal that they are ready for interaction.

  research shows mothers pick up on their baby's alertness 2/3 of the time but varies due to skill of the mother and external factors

  becomes increasingly frequent from 3 months

  baby and mother pay close attention to each other's verbal signals and facial expressions
• active involvement in reciprocity

  babies and the caregiver take an active role.

  both caregiver and baby can initiate interactions and they take turns in doing so.
• interactional synchrony

  caregiver and baby mirror the actions and emotions of the other and do it simultaneously
• synchrony begins

  Meltzoff and Moore

  observed interactional synchrony beginning as young as 2 weeks old.

  adult displayed one of three facial expressions and one of three gestures.

  baby's response was filmed and labelled by independent observers.

  significant association.
• importance of interactional synchrony for attachment

  Isabella et al

  observed 30 mothers + babies together and assessed the synchrony.

  also assessed quality of mother-baby attachment.

  found high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment
• strength - filmed observations

  usually filmed in a lab

  means activity that may distract the baby can be controlled

  also means that observations can be recorded and analysed later so unlikely to miss key behaviours.

  more than one observer can record data and establish inter-rater reliability

  babies don't know they are being observed so behaviour won't change.

  good validity and reliability
• limitation - difficult to observe babies

  hard to interpret a baby's behaviour

  young babies lack co-ordination and are almost immobile so the movements being observed are small hand movements and subtle facial expressions.

  it is difficult to determine what is taking place from the baby's perspective as they may not be moving as a response - could be a twitch
• limitation - developmental importance

  observing a behaviour doesn't tell us it's developmental importance

  Feldman pointed out that synchrony gives names to patterns of observable behaviours but they may not be useful in understanding child development and the purpose of behaviours.
• counterpoint - developmental importance

  evidence from other research suggests early interactions are important.

  e.g. Isabella et al. predicting development of good quality attachment