Whether maternal touching of the infant while speaking to him or her about a stranger facilitates or interferes with social referencing is investigated in this study. Thirty-three 10-month-olds received positive or neutral nonverbal messages when their mothers spoke to them about a stranger. Infants whose mothers did not touch them while speaking…

This paper reports an exploratory investigation of motor patterns characteristic of maternal gameplaying behavior conducted with forty-eight 4-, 6- and 8-month-old infants and their mothers. Videotapes of 6-minute laboratory mother-infant play sessions were segmented into maternal games which were categorized according to the type and complexity…