caregiver-infant interactions

• Attachment


  Close emotional bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as an essential for their own emotional security
• Primary attachment


  • First person you become attached to, usually the mother
• Secondary attachment


  • Attachment to other family members, including the father, formed later
• Caregiver


  Any person who is responding to the baby's signals and behaviours
• behaviours that show an infant has an attachment


  • proximity: Staying close to the person you are attached to
  • secure-base behaviour: Making regular contact with your attachment figure but still playing
  • Separation distress: People show signs of anxiety when an attachment figure leaves their presence
• Reciprocity


  An interaction where each person responds to and elicits a response from the other
• Turn taking


  Responding to a baby by saying something, then this in turn elicits a response from the baby
• Alert phases


  • Babies signal (e.g. making eye contact) that they are ready for a spell of interaction
• Feldman and Eidelman

  Mothers typically pick up and respond to their baby's alertness around 2/3 of the time, this varies according to the skill of the mother and external factors such as stress
• Feldman (2007)

  From around 3 months, interaction tends to become increasingly frequent and involves mother and baby paying close attention to each other's verbal signals and expressions
• Active involvement


  • Both caregiver and baby can initiate interactions and they appear to take turns in doing so
• Interactional synchrony


  Caregiver and baby reflects both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated (synchronised) way
• Meltzoff and Moore

  Interactional synchrony has been observed in babies as young as 2 week old, where babies' expressions/gestures were more likely to mirror those of the adults more than chance would predict
• Isabella et al (1989)

  observed 30 mothers and babies together. found high levels of interactional synchronyassociated with better quality mother-baby attachment
• filmed observation


  recording interactions in a lab helps avoid distractions, allows for detailed analysis, can involve multiple observers and ensures natural behaviour for reliable data.
• difficulty observing babies


  poor coordination and limited mobility make their small movements and expression shard to read, so we can't be sure if these behaviours hold special meaning.
• developmental importance


  observing behaviour doesn't reveal its developmental importance. Feldman notes that terms like synchrony and reciprocity merely label observable patterns, without explaining their purpose.
• counterpoint


  evidence supports early interactions are important. E.G. Isabella found that interactional synchrony predicts good quality attachment. thus, caregiver-infant interaction is important for development.