Caregiver-infant interactions

• Reciprocity: Caregiver–infant interaction is reciprocal, i.e. each person's interactions affect the other.
• Alert phases-From birth babies signal when they are ready to interact (e.g. eye contact).
• Active not passive-Babies don’t just respond, they initiate interaction (turn-taking ‘dance’).
• Interactional synchrony-Caregiver and infant signals synchronise, i.e. they occur together (‘mirroring’).
• Meltzoff and Moore stated that babies mirror adults’ expressions and gestures from two weeks old.
• Isabella et al. suggested that synchrony linked to better quality mother–baby attachment.
• one strength of research into caregiver-infant interactions is that they are usually filmed in a lab. This means that more than one person can observe, which increases inter-rater reliability
• One limitation is there is a difficulty interpreting babies behaviour, as they lack coordination.
• Another limitation is that observing behaviour does not tell us about the developmental importance. this means we cannot be certain that caregiver-infant interactions are important. CA- Isabella et. al research found they are important.