Caregiver-infant interactions

• Attachment = a strong reciprocal emotional bond between an infant and a primary care giver.
• Reciprocal = two/both ways; the child has to bond with the mother, and the mother has to bond with the child for an attachment for form successfully. They must both be able to contribute to the relationship and generate a response
• reciprocity is important in teaching the child to communicate. It also allows the parent to better care for the child as they can detect certain cues from the baby and respond to their needs sooner and more effectively
• Interactional synchrony = when the infant and primary caregiver becomes synchronised in their interactions
• Condon and Sander (1974) said that children can synchronise their movements with the sound of an adult’s voice, and Brazleton et al demonstrated that young infants can copy the displayed distinctive facial expressions or gestures
• strength -

  Many of these studies used controlled observations. Specifically, Brazleton et al even filmed the interactions from different angles. This not only ensures a high level of detail and accuracy in the observations, but also allows valid conclusions to be drawn because inter-rater reliability can be established: independent observers can rewatch the tapes and compare their findings.
• weakness -

  The main issue with observations of such young children is that we do not know whether their actions are meaningful, especially since children as young as 2 weeks old have little or no motor coordination. Bremner drew the distinction between behavioural response and behavioural understanding: just because an interaction appears to be reciprocal, does not mean that the child understands the purpose of either reciprocity or interactional synchrony.