Caregiver-infant interactions

• What is reciprocity?

  A description of how two people interact.
• How is caregiver-infant interaction reciprocal?

  Both the caregiver and the baby respond to each other's signals and each elicits a response from the other.
• What are alert phases?

  When babies signal (e.g. by making eye contact) that they are ready to interact.
• How often do mothers pick up on and respond to their baby's alertness? (Feldman and Eidelman 2007)

  Around two thirds of the time, although this varies according to the skill of the mother and external factors like stress.
• What is the role of the baby in an interaction?

  Both caregiver and baby can initiate interactions and they appear to take turns in doing so. Brazelton describes reciprocity as a kind of 'dance'.
• What is interactional synchrony?

  When the caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a coordinated way.
• How does Feldman (2007) define interactional synchrony?

  'The temporal coordination of micro-level social behaviour'.
• What was Meltzoff and Moore's study?

  They observed the beginning of interactional synchrony in babies as young as 2 weeks old. And adult displayed one of three facial expressions or gestures. The baby's response was filmed and labelled by independent observers.
• What did Meltzoff and Moore find?

  Babies' expression and gestures were more likely to mirror those of the adults more than chance would predict i.e. there was a significant association.
• What was Isabella et al's observation?

  They observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony. They also assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment.
• What were the findings of Isabella et al?

  They found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better mother-baby attachment (e.g. the emotional intensity of the relationship).