caregiver infant interactions

    Cards (7)

    • attachment is a two way emotional bond in which both parties rely on each other for support.
    • communications between infant and caregiver are believed to have important functions for a child's development.
    • reciprocity is where the infant and caregiver respond to each other’s actions, taking turns. often described as a dance (brazelton) from three months onwards this increased as both pay more attention to each other.
    • interactional synchrony is where the infant and caregiver mirror each other in a synchronised way. meltzoff and moore found a clear association between infants behaviour and the adult model.
    • 🙂 well controlled procedures
      • film from multiple angles
      • lab setting
      • avoid extraneous variables
      • establish inter-rater reliability
    • ☹️ observing baby behaviour
      • cannot establish babies' thoughts
      • can lead to observer bias
      • constantly moving - hard to interpret intentional movement vs fidgeting
    • ☹️ feldman points out that these just give names to observable behaviours, do not tell us the purpose or meaning of them.
      • however, isabella observed 30 mother and infants, assessed degree of synchrony. found higher levels associated with better quality attachment.