Caregiver-infant interactions

• Attachment 


  Attachment is a close two-way emotional bond between two individuals in which each sees the other as essential for their own emotional security.
• How to recognise attachment

  Proximity seeking

  Separation anxiety

  Stranger anxiety

  Secure base behaviour

  Reunion behaviour
• Alert phases 


  A period where babies signal that they are ready for interaction.

  Mothers will typically pick up on and respond to infant alertness around 2/3 of the time.
• Reciprocity 


  An interaction is reciprocal when each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them.

  It involves a back-and-forth pattern of communication ; the infant's behaviour elicits a response from the caregiver, which in turn influences the infant's behaviour.
• Interactional synchrony 


  People are said to be synchronised when they carry out the same actions simultaneously.

  Caregiver and baby mirror each other's behaviour and emotions.

  The temporal co-ordination of behaviours between an infant and their caregiver.