caregiver-infant interactions

• Reciprocity


  Both caregiver and infant contribute to the interaction by responding to the other's signals and cues.

  A 'non verbal conversation'

  From birth, babies move in a rhythm when interacting with an adult, taking turns
• Interactional synchrony


  A simultaneous interaction between the infant and caregiver who appear to be acting rhythmically, with matching, coordinated behaviour and matching emotional states.

  When two people interact, they tend to mirror what the other is doing in terms of their facial expressions and body movements.
• + Supporting evidence for reciprocity


  E - Tronick et al asked mothers who had been enjoying a dialogue with their baby to stop moving and maintain a static, unsmiling expression on their face. Babies would try to tempt the mother into interaction by smiling themselves - puzzled and increasingly distressed when their smile did not provoke the usual response.

  E - This demonstrates how infants attempt to have non-verbal conversations with their caregivers and get confused if this reciprocity does not occur.

  L - Therefore, this shows a link between reciprocity between caregiver and infant.
• + Supporting evidence for interactional synchrony


  E - Meltzoff and Moore: An experimenter displayed facial gestures such as sticking a tongue out and opening their mouth in shock to 12-21 day old infants. Recordings of the infant's responses were rated by people blind to the experiment. Infant responses matched the experimenter's facial expressions.

  E - Suggest the ability to observe and reciprocate through imitation is present from a very early stage.

  L - However, Infants mouths are constantly moving which makes it difficult to distinguish between general activity and specific imitation.
• - Contrasting explanation for interactional synchrony


  E - Piaget believed that true imitation only developed towards the end of the first year and anything before this was 'response training'. The infant was repeating the rewarded behaviour (operant conditioning).

  E - Piaget, therefore, believed that the infant was pseudo-imitating. They had not consciously translated what they were seeing into the matching movement.

  L - Therefore, this contrasts the idea of interactional synchrony and could suggest it is not an accurate way of describing interactions.
• Attachment

  Infants and caregivers develop deep and lasting emotional bonds. Both members of this emotional relationship seek closeness and feel more secure when close to their attachment figure. The strength of the bonds can be seen in two-way caregiver-infant interactions such as reciprocity and interactional synchrony.
• Imitation


  The infant directly copies the caregiver's expression.
• Sensitive responsiveness


  The adult caregiver correctly interprets the meaning of the infant's communication and is motivated to respond appropriately. For example, they provide milk or change a nappy when the infant shows distress.
• Child-directed speech


  The adult care-giver talks in a 'sing-song' tone, modulating their voice by slowing it down and raising the pitch; this voice modulation helps keep the infant's attention.
• Body contact


  Physical contact, especially skin-to-skin contact, is necessary for bonding, especially in the first few hours of life.
• / Infants cannot directly communicate with thoughts or emotions


  E - findings in caregiver-infant interaction research depend on inferences, which are considered unscientific.

  E - Inferences are assumptions about infants' internal mental states based on observed behaviour and they could be mistaken.

  L - Therefore, the research conducted is not scientific which means the theory could just be based on assumptions.