Caregiver-infant interactions

• Reciprocity= each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them
• Alert phases:


  Babies have ‘alert phases’ in which they signal they are ready for interaction (e.g. by making eye contact). From around 3 months this interaction becomes more frequent and involves both mother and baby paying close attention to each others verbal and facial signals.
• Feldman and Eidelman found that mothers typically pick up on and respond to their baby’s alertness round two-thirds of the time, although this varies depending on the skill of the mother and external factors like stress.
• Active Involvement:


  Traditional views of childhood have portrayed babies in a passive role, receiving care from an adult. However, it seems that babies also take quite an active role as both caregiver and baby can initiate interactions and they appear to take turns doing so.
• Active Involvement:


  Brazelton et al. described this interaction as a ‘dance’ because it is like a couple’s dance where each partner responds to the other person’s moves.
• Interactional synchrony= caregiver and baby reflect each others actions and emotions in a synchronised way (simultaneously).
• Meltzoff and Moore:


  An adult displayed one of three facial expressions or one of three gestures. The baby’s response was filmed and watched by independent observers.
• Meltzoff and Moore observed the beginning of interactional synchrony in babies as young as two weeks old.
• Meltzoff and Moore:


  Babies’ gestures and expressions were more likely to mirror those of the adults more than chance would predict it (there was a significant association).
• It is believed that interactional synchrony is important for the development of caregiver-infant attachment.
• Isabella et al.:


  He observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony. The researchers also assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment.
• Isabella et al.:


  They found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment.
• A strength of this research is that the interactions were filmed in a lab so they could control any other activities that might distract a baby. As well as the fact that babies are unaware they are being observed so their behaviour will be natural. Therefore the data collected from this research should have good reliability and validity.
• Using filmed observations also means that it can be reviewed and analysed later so it is unlikely researchers will miss any key behaviours. It also means more than one observer can record data and establish the inter-rater reliability of observations.
• A limitation is that it is hard to interpret a baby’s behaviour as they lack co-ordination and are mostly immobile. The movements being observed are just small hand movements or subtle changes in expressions. It is difficult to know to determine if a hand movement is random or triggered by the caregiver. This means we cannot be certain the behaviours seen in these interactions have a special meaning.
• Another limitation is that simply observing behaviour does not tell us its developmental importance.
• Feldman:


  Points out that ideas like interactional synchrony simply give names to observable patterns of caregiver and baby behaviours but they still may not be useful in understanding child development as it does not tell us the purpose of these behaviours. This means we cannot be certain from observational research alone that reciprocity and synchrony are important for a child’s development.
• However, there is some evidence that reciprocity and synchrony are important in development. For example, Isabella et al. found that the achievement of interactional synchrony predicted the development of a good quality attachment, suggesting caregiver-infant interaction is probably important in development.