caregiver-infant interactions

• Babies have meaningful social interactions with their carers from the start
• Good quality early social interactions are associated with the development of attachments between babies and their caregivers
• Reciprocity


  An interaction is said to show reciprocity when each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them
• Babies have periodic alert phases in which they signal making eye contact that they are ready for a spell of interaction
• Mothers typically pick up on and spend time with their baby's alertness around two-thirds of the time
• From around 3 months, the interaction between mother and baby becomes increasingly frequent and involves both paying close attention to each other's verbal signals and facial expressions
• Active involvement


  Babies as well as caregivers actually take quite an active role, both can initiate interactions and they appear to take turns in doing so
• Interactional synchrony


  The temporal co-ordination of high-level social behaviour, where caregiver and baby interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other
• Interactional synchrony is believed to be important for the development of caregiver-infant attachment
• High levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment
• Research into caregiver-infant interaction is often carried out by observation
• Helga is a first-time mother who is struggling with her new baby Wilma and experiencing severe stress
• Helga is experiencing severe stress


  A psychologist might suggest referring to research into caregiver-infant interactions to help Helga