*Caregiver-Infant Interactions Flashcards
What is reciprocity in caregiver-infant interactions?
A description of how two people interact, where both caregiver and baby respond to each other’s signals.
Reciprocity involves each party eliciting a response from the other.
Define interactional synchrony.
Caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other in a coordinated way.
Interactional synchrony is essential for developing a strong attachment.
What is an attachment?
A close, two-way bond between two people, essential for emotional security.
Takes a few months to develop in babies and is affected by caregiver responsiveness.
How can attachment be recognized?
Through proximity, separation distress, and secure base behavior.
Proximity involves staying close to the attachment figure while separation distress is anxiety when they leave.
Why are meaningful interactions with caregivers important for children?
They are crucial for early social development and lead to successful attachment.
Good quality interactions foster a strong bond between baby and caregiver.
What does the alert phase in infants signify?
The baby signals that they want interaction through eye contact and/or noises.
This phase is critical for establishing communication between caregiver and infant.
According to Feldman and Eidelman (2007), how often do mothers typically respond to their babies?
2/3 of the time.
This responsiveness can vary depending on the mother’s experience and external factors.
What happens from 3 months onward in caregiver-infant interactions?
Interactions become more frequent, with mutual attention to noises and facial expressions.
Both baby and caregiver initiate interactions, creating a two-way conversation.
What is the definition of interactional synchrony according to Feldman (2007)?
The temporal coordination of micro-level social behavior.
It occurs when two or more people carry out the same action simultaneously.
At what age does interactional synchrony begin?
As early as 2 months old.
Meltzoff and Moore (1977) found that babies significantly mirrored adults’ actions.
What did Isabella et al. (1989) study about synchrony?
Studied the relationship between synchrony and the quality of mother-baby attachment, finding high synchrony leads to better attachment.
This underscores the importance of synchronized interactions for attachment quality.
What is a strength of caregiver-infant interaction research?
Filmed in a lab allowing control for distractions.
Recorded interactions can be analyzed later, reducing the chance of missing key behaviors.
What is a limitation of caregiver-infant interaction research?
Hard to interpret babies’ behaviors due to their uncoordinated and immobile nature.
Subtle expression changes can easily be missed, and movements may sometimes be random.
What practical value does Crotwell et al. (2013) highlight?
10-minute parent-child interaction therapy improves interactional synchrony.
This suggests that targeted interventions can enhance caregiver-infant interactions.
True or False: Caregiver-infant interaction research implies that mothers returning to work may damage their child’s development.
True.
This claim makes the topic socially sensitive and raises ethical considerations.
