8 - Caregiver - Infant Interactions Flashcards
What are the two caregiver - infant interactions?
Reciprocity
Interactional synchrony
Define reciprocity. Why is it important?
Turn taking - an interaction between an adult and an infant that flows both ways.
Infants coordinate their actions with their caregivers in a kind of conversation.
This basic rhythm is an important precursor to conversations.
This sensitivity to infant behaviour lays the foundation for later attachment between the caregiver and infant.
Define interactional synchrony. Why is it important?
When adults and babies respond in time to sustain communication.
Their actions and emotions mirror each other.
What research supports the existence of interactional synchrony?
It was found that infants as young as two or three weeks old imitated specific facial and hand gestures that they saw adults do.
An adult model displayed one of three facial expressions or hand movements.
A dummy was placed in the infants mouth to prevent any response during the display.
After the display, the dummy was removed and the infants expression was filmed.
They found that there was an association between the infants behaviour and the adult model.
What are the advantages of caregiver - infant interactions?
Interactional synchrony has been demonstrated in several studies. It was found that infants as young as three days old were displaying this behaviour, which seems to suggest that the imitation behaviours are innate, not learned.
Mothers were told to interact with their babies over a video monitor. Then, the babies were played a tape of their mother so she was not responding to them. The babies tried to attract their mothers attention but when this failed they gave up responding. This shows that babies are mirroring their mothers in order to interact with them.
Infants were observed when interacting with an object that looked like a human mouth opening and closing. Infants made little response to this, which shows they are not just imitating what they see; interactional synchrony is a specific social response.
What are the disadvantages of caregiver - infant interactions?
Other studies have filed to replicate the same findings. For example, a study replicated it but found no evidence of interactional synchrony.
It is difficult to reliably test infants behaviours. The expressions tested ( tongue sticking out, yawning and smiling ) are ones that infants frequently make so they may not have been specifically imitating what they saw.
It was argued that true imitation does not happen until a baby was around one year old so anything before that is merely imitating in the hope of getting a reward and not true interaction. For instance, a baby sticks out its tongue because it’s mother does and then is rewarded when their mother smiles at them.
