This study examined the extent to which the quality of teacher-infant interactions varies across play and routine care activities. In addition, the effects of the quantity of adult involvement in the quality of teacher-infant interactions were investigated. Participants were teachers and infants from 90 infant classrooms in Portugal. Classrooms…

The development of copying behaviours of a group of infants from 9 to 15 months of age is analysed. These behaviours are classified according to their type (mimetic or imitated) and function (instrumental, social or hybrid). The function of the behaviours is derived from observable indicators linked to dyadic interaction. Mimetic behaviours are…

Early mother-infant coordinated interactions play a critical role in infant development. The present study describes the development of the dyadic coordination of vocalization and gaze behavior between mothers and infants over the first year of life. In addition to describing developmental trajectories of behavior, the study contributes to our…

This study captures the possibilities of infants' interactions in a Brazilian Early Childhood Education Centre. It contributes to an increasing number of educational research that is capturing the specificities of how young children use their understandings of context through gestures and verbal forms of language to create meanings as they develop…

The study of infants' interactive style and social stress response to repeated stress exposures is of great interest for developmental and clinical psychologists. Stable maternal and dyadic behavior is critical to sustain infants' development of an adaptive social stress response, but the association between infants' interactive style and social…

Screening studies of a population in primary health care are sparsely reported. The aim was to describe observed atypical behaviours that may be associated with autism spectrum conditions, in a population (n?=?4,329) of infants at eight months. Observations were performed by paediatric nurses. An observational instrument, named SEEK developed for…

This qualitative multicase study explored the process through which three student caregivers engaged in relationships with key infants in the context of an infant practicum course as a foundation for learning about infant development and practice. Focusing on caregiver-infant dyads, data sources included videotaped observations of caregiver-child…

In this article we argue that current theories on socioemotional development during infancy need to be reconceptualized in order to account for cross-cultural variation in caregiver-infant interaction. In line with the cultural-historical internalization theory of emotional development (Holodynski & Friedlmeier, 2006) and the ecocultural model of…

Objective: No previous longitudinal study has examined the impact of comorbid maternal personality disorder (PD) and depression on child development. We set out to examine whether maternal PD and depression assessed at 2 months post partum would be independently associated with adverse developmental outcomes at 18 months of age. Method: Women were…

The current study tested whether the purely amodal cue of contingency elicits orientation following behavior in 8-month-old infants. We presented 8-month-old infants with automated objects without human features that did or did not react contingently to the infants' fixations recorded by an eye tracker. We found that an object's occasional…

A notable omission in studies of developmental links to early nutritional deficiencies is infant attachment. In those few studies investigating associations between infant nutrition and attachment, nutrition was defined solely by physical growth, and infants had moderate-severe growth retardation. In this study, we utilized multiple markers of…

The present study examines coviewing of "Baby Mozart" by 6- to 18-month-old infants and their caregivers under naturalistic conditions. We had two questions. First, extending the method of Barr, Zack, Garcia, and Muentener (Infancy, 13 [2008], 30-56) to a younger population, we asked if age, prior exposure, and caregiver verbal input would predict…

Considers aspects of the structural design of conventions observed in parent-child interaction. Examines kinds of design differences that occur in conventions and the consequences of those differences, particularly for parent-child coordination. (PCB)

Reddy and Trevarthen explore what we can learn from emotionally engaging with babies. Theirs is a different approach from 20th-century psychology, in which doubt and detachment play a role in discerning other people's feelings and thoughts. Instead, the authors suggest that emotions are the key to psychological engagement. When interacting with an…

Three groups of 12-month-old infants (10 deaf infants with hearing parents, 10 deaf infants with deaf parents, and 10 hearing infants with hearing parents) were videotaped during free play with mothers. Infant attention state was coded, identifying periods as: (1) unengaged, (2) onlooking, (3) object-attend, (4) person-attend, (5) supported joint…