Caregiver-Infant Interactions

• A01: Reciprocity

  The way in which a caregiver responds to an infant and elicits a response from them
• A01: Alert Phase

  Babies signal that they are ready for a spell of interaction

  Feldman:

  • From 3 months, interactions between mother + baby become increasingly frequent, involves both both paying close attention to each other's verbal/physical signals/expressions.
• A01: Active Involvement - Brazelton

  • Both babies and caregivers take an active role
  • Take turns in initiating interactions
  • Described as a 'dance' each person responds to the other's moves
• A01: Interactional Synchrony

  Caregiver and infant mirror each other's actions/ emotions in a coordinated way
• A01: Synchrony Begins - Meltzoff + Moore

  • Observed the beginning of interactional synchrony in babies
  • Adult displayed 1 of 3 expressions
  • Baby's response was recorded/labelled by independent observers

  Findings:

  • Found that babies were more likely to mirror adult's behaviours more than what they predicted
• Interactional Synchrony - Isabella et al.

  • Observed 30 mothers/babies, assessed level of synchrony
  • Assessed quality of mother-baby attachment

  Findings:

  • High levels of synchrony was associated with better quality of mother-baby attachment
• A03: Strength - Filmed observations in lab

  • Ensures that activities are controlled
  • Being filmed means that it can be analysed later and multiple times, so unlikely to miss any key info
  • Can establish inter-rater reliability
  • Since babies are unaware they are being observed, they won't change their responses to how they would perform them in everyday life
  • So, data collected has reliability + validity
• A03: Limitation - Difficulty in interpreting babies behaviours

  • Since babies lack coordination and bodies are immobile, can be difficult to be sure whether babies' movements are genuine or random acts
  • Also difficult to identify the baby's perspective
  • Means we can't be certain about behaviours seen in caregiver infant interactions, whether it has a special meaning or due to the baby's lack of mobility
• A03: Limitation - Just observing behaviours doesn't tell much about the developmental importance (Feldman)

  • Behaviours can be reliably observed but may not be useful in understanding child development because it doesn't tell much about the purpose of those behaviours
  • Means that observational research alone doesn't tell much about the purpose of these behaviours