Mother Infant Interaction example essay topic

IDENTIFY WHAT YOU CONSIDER TO BE KEY FEATURES DEVELOPMENT OF INFANTS, AND EXPLORE THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR THEORIES OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT. INTRODUCTION When infants are born they want to be loved and cared in what ever relationships they are with their caregivers, so that they could survive and could feel sense of security and warmth, which without a caregiver is impossible, talking about caregivers, mother would be the primary source of forming an infant's first relationship by whom the baby would take his first leap towards his growth and development and would keep continuing making his advances further in many domains of psychological development, whether social or cognitive. Some key features which play an important role in his early psychological development are meshing, imitation, and scaffolding. But which theoretical approach of development would imply in infant's early psychological development, will it be behaviorism, nativism, constructivism or social constructivism or will they over lap with one another in their implication thus it would be analyzed and explored during the mother and infant interaction and behaviour in different processes like imitation, scaffolding etc but what are these processes? And how they influence and play an important role in types of psychological development (social, cognitive, and in language development) KEY FEATURES OF INFANT FIRST RELATIONSHIP Meshing is one of the key features of relationship in mother -infant interaction.

Behaviour of both an infant and mother are meshed together. The common situation of meshing is witnessed when a smooth conversation between two people is going on and each person waits for his turn taking either to speak or to listen, this indicates mutual action happening simultaneously. Trevarthen (1993) called it as "co-regulation" the aspects of turn taking and synchronizing, furthermore he described them through speech and non verbal behaviour, such as nods, eye contacts and body movements, moreover he puts in by saying neither a caregiver nor the baby needs to be skilled at the management of these kind of interactions. So this could mean that in early mother-infant interaction the infant share true dialogues with his mother which are named as pseudo-dialogues and further give the baby an effective role in his interaction to experience relatedness. Therefore the infant begins to form representation of others and consequently gets to know about his own behaviour in response to others. As a result the pseudo dialogue becomes the proto- dialogue by which the infant begins to respond effectively because the caregiver plays a dominant role in allowing the baby to feel and interact in the relationship.

Breast feeding or bottle feeding is one of the area of interaction between the mother and infant which has taken the attention of developmental psychologists regarding the rhythmic nature of the infant's behaviour shown while he takes his feed from his mother, in between when the baby pauses for his feed and mother play an active role in interacting with him but despite the fact that infant role is not that active still makes his response if he is being shaken or jiggled during the period of pause. Kaye and Brazetton (1971) supported this study when they carried out their observation that what happens when mothers jiggle, to their surprise jiggling seems to lengthen the pauses and in doing so when the jiggling is stopped by the mother, the sucking would begin which in result would prove that mutual action is taking place between mother -infant interaction even though mother's part is more active as compared to the baby but still he shows positive signs of responsiveness. Moreover interaction between mother and baby is very conversation like. Role of meshing in the early psychological development of an infantIMITATIONImitations can be viewed as a further advancement in building up pseudo-dialogues by the infant imitating the facial gestures made by his care givers.

This advanced unit of pseudo -dialogues could consist of tongue protrusion, mouth opening, lip widening and pouting. These actions done by the infant could be a sign of his cognitive abilities. A study carried out by Pawlby (1977) by imitative sequences between mothers and their infants, was found out that between the ages of four months to ten months, mother imitated their babies more than babies imitating their mothers, furthermore during this age period it was also found out that imitative responses by using hand movements and sounds were taking place too, but by eight months imitative actions were dominated with objects like rattles etc This indicates that a mother could know before how to interact and respond back to the imitative experience she undergoes with her baby at some level without a particular stimuli during the process of their interaction. for a mother, baby's behaviour towards her imitative responses can be considered a sign of communication between them which later can be effective in the early -dialogues, moreover predictable responses by the mother would help him the baby to associate and represent her mother as a source of relatedness which was discussed before. Trevarthen used the term primary "inter subjectivity" to describe this type of interaction between a mother and her baby and moreover highlighted a belief that these primary interpersonal events in mother-infant interaction as units of imitation occur due to the development of sensitivity in the baby and the mother towards each other subjective experience.

But when objects like toys are involved between the mother -infant interaction, a new development shows up and allows the mother and her infant to take joint venture in experiencing and sharing a joint action and attention by introducing objects in their interaction. This advanced step in development Trevarthen described as "secondary". SCAFFOLDING: In the process of scaffolding the mother can begin to teach the baby by sharing the experience of doing things together with other objects. The baby can now become more active within his relationship. Jerome Bruner has described the term scaffolding as a specific way of interaction by mothers with their infants to allow the babies to progress and achieve results in a way which they can not perform on their own.

Furthermore he adds in that joint actions act as joint-action formats, by which a mother actions are repeated over in enabling the baby to learn and provide a foundation in true language. The example he gives is of book reading where a mother controls the interaction with her infant by making the book an object during their course of interaction. Wood et al, 1976 supported this process by mother's modeling, curing and raising the ante. Firstly In modeling, mother provides a model to a baby to achieve, in curing baby is indicated a specific format which is suitable in a given situation and thirdly complex joint formats are encouraged to put together to achieve more complex goals. Significance of early psychological development in infants: Key features such as meshing, imitation and scaffolding which were described above have an important role in shaping up the early psychological development in infants. Let us firstly discuss the process of meshing for instance which if observed closely has a potentiality of an early sign of language and social development in which turn taking play its key role in mother - infant interaction.

Take the simple and every day example of turn taking when two people converse, one talks and other listen because of his turn to have an effective communication or response to his fellow partner, if that had not been the case to take turns or pause in between for other's turn while having a conversation, it would be difficult to have a desirable response... Another example would be of jiggling and shaking which the mother does while feeding his baby, likewise in this situation we can relate how the pauses and responses between the baby's feed and mother's jiggling generates early signs of effective interaction and in result will trigger the early language and social development more effectively. Similarly if we analyze the experience of turn taking where the baby interacts with his mother in the form of -dialogues which later become proto- dialogues is the early start for the baby to form relatedness in his conversation like interaction with his mother. By observing the researched study done by Trevarthen (1993) could show evidently the potential aspects of early language development in mother -infant interaction where the baby responds back by making nods, eye contacts and body movements in the form of -dialogues which later become proto dialogues. Moreover we can evidently observe the supported study made by Kaye and Braz elton (1971) the experience of jiggling where mother shakes his baby in between her feedings and in result there are more lengthy pauses which enable mother -infant interaction to have an effective way of developing an early social and language skills. Hence these analysis indicate that the process of meshing does has its important role in triggering the early language and social development of an infant.

Coming towards the second process of imitation it shows to be an advanced stage of language development which in effect simultaneously is opening the doors of cognitive development where baby's former - dialogues have taken further advancement in his imitative expressions between his mother and he shows it by lip widen ing, mouth opening, pouting and by tongue protrusion. This shows baby's early understanding of language skills through the development of his early cognitive abilities in enabling both the mother and infant to act mutually in a effective manner. More imitations done by mother from early on with his infant has a great effect for the baby to relate, represent and response with his mother but somehow it is due to the fact that the mother already knows how to interact and act in response to her infant's behaviour. Mother and a infant's share their subjective experiences due to the understanding of having a sensitivity towards each other experiences, this is said to be a primary inter subjectivity which later becomes secondary inter subjectivity when they had to share a new experience by involving objects like toys to experience a joint action which in result is paving the way of new development of cognition abilities in the baby. Pawlby (1977) researched study could evidently indicate how the mother's preconceived response of her baby's behaviour is actually enabling the baby to respond effectively towards her mother's imitative experiences.

Therefore we can say the level of understanding and communication could be the sign of early cognitive abilities developing in the infant. Trevarthen study evidently could show the phase of primary subjectivity as an subjective experience of a mother-infant interaction to second ry subjectivity, a joint experience with the introduction of new objects like toys in their interaction is acting as a moving force in further development of more advanced intellectual and communicative skills. Hence the analysis shows that the process of imitation has an important role in an early cognitive and communicative development in the infant. Last but not the least the process of scaffolding is where the baby achieves his goals and make progress which he can not perform on his own but with the help of his mother as a tutor or with his care givers. This process could be said has an effective role in many domains of an early psychological development of an infant, it can be from his advanced language development to social development. Moreover joint action are acting as joint formats with whose help mother's repeated and predictable actions and responses are enabling the development of an infant to possess a foundation towards the first steps in true language with meaningful and representational words.

It can be said with the help in modeling, curing and raising the ante is actually providing effective tutoring as well in achieving from simple goals to complex goals which consequently play a vital role in developing a new form of meaningful language achievement. Scaffolding process shows signs of an advanced and effective social interaction between the infant and his care givers too as a baby is interacted to experience even more advanced interpersonal skills with the tutoring of her mother in achieving his desirable goals. Jerome Bruner studies could evidently indicate that due to the help of mothers and caregivers as in the example of book reading that repeated and steady regularity by the mother is enabling the baby to achieve true language. Furthermore an effective and advanced social interaction ability could be evidently seen by helping the baby to attain his goals by using a book as an object in the course of mother infant interaction.

Likewise Wood et al. (1976) supported view evidently show how by modeling, curing and raising the ante is further advancement to effective social interaction and more developed language development. Hence we could say now that the process of scaffolding is even more advanced and has a important role in social and language development. IMPLICATIONS OF THEORETICAL APPROACHES IN EARLY INFANT RELATIONSHIP It would be a conflictive task by categorizing the three different early processes of meshing, imitation and scaffolding in either one category or even in all as some might show more implication than the other or they simply can overlap with one another.

Before we analyze the implication of different theoretical approaches let us review them briefly, for example behaviorists (B.F. Skinner) and nativists (Noam Chomsky) believe the nature of child as passive whereas constructivists (Jean Piaget) and social constructivists (Lev Vygotsky) belief is that the nature of child is active within his development. Behaviorist, skinner believe that by conditioning and reinforcement a child develops within his environment, nativist, Chomsky view that a child possess innate abilities like LAD (language acquis ion device) to develop within his. On the other hand constructivist, (piaget) and social constructivist, (Vygotsky) views are entirely different as Piaget believe due to maturation and learning a child is active enough to construct his own knowledge within his environment, and Vygotsky, stresses upon the role and influence of culture in the active development of a child. After describing the brief overview of theoretical approaches we can now discuss analytically their implication in different feature of early relationship. The process of meshing, where mother and infant's behaviour is fit together show a strong link of Skinner's behaviour ist theory in which reinforcement and conditioning are responsible in the development of a child within his environment this we have evidently seen in turn taking where the infant is reinforced by his mother as his environment, the conditioning of an infant can also be witnessed when the baby is jiggled in between his feeding and then respond respectively. in meshing we the child is not that active yet if we compare the process of scaffolding where child is shown more active in respect of his responses and behaviour, could be because the knowledge and learning of forming relationships in the process of meshing could not be enough. Although Meshing does show the early signs of communicative language skills that the child develops in the form of dialogues and later proto dialogues but are not so advanced comparatively like other processes.

Somehow if talk about these dialogues it also show slight linkage of nativism theory too which supposedly could be said that infant by his early inborn ability is trying to form these dialogues which later become more advanced and effective in imitation. Hence the theory of behaviorism implied to meshing could be evidently said has a strong link with some slight trace of nativism theory too. Studying the process of imitation where the infant learning is becoming more advanced and have begun to show signs of cognitive abilities by imitating facial gestures in response to her mother interaction, could be the reason of his early cognitive development which constructivist, Piaget believes in or could be presumably his innate ability as nativist, chomsky believe in. by the age of 8 to 10 months the infant is showing more imitative responses by his hand movements or by objects like rattling toys etc, this would indicate that infant has started to use his innate ability within his environment and in result constructing his limited knowledge more further to advanced one. Infant's behaviour and responses are again reinforced by his environment ie his mother when she give her baby a positive and an effective response during their interaction which had been already studied above. The theory of constructivism, nativism and behaviour ism, one way or another are showing their implication in the process of imitation. Last and but not the least scaffolding process is even more advanced one as it was said earlier but what makes it different from other processes is that it completely show signs of social constructivism theory where mother is teaching and helping more effectively to her baby to achieve certain goals which he can not do so on his own. similarly that's how the social constructivist, puts in by saying that certain signs and abstractions can not be attained unless the child has a zone of proximal development which is a next step to development.

The mother had been socially interactive with his infant in all three processes but in this process he shows even more signs of advanced development in which he can represent the joint actions or formats, his early dialogues to proto dialogues into more meaningful conversation like dialogues and which happened due to the baby being very active within his physical and social environment ie by his mother and by bringing toys and books as objects to his experience. Model of transactional period is described by constructivist, piaget as when a child has its own active role within his development and that what it all sums up towards the implication of all theoretical approaches as well as regarding the three important key processes of early infant relationships. CONCLUSION: Thus it can be concluded evidently that the key features in infant's first relationship are meshing, imitation and scaffolding. Moreover they play a vital role in the early psychological development for example in the process of meshing we discovered the early development of language skills and in imitation the cognitive development etc. When it comes to the implication part we can evidently say more than one theoretical approach over lapped with the other theory.

To sum it all up we discovered that the three key processes of meshing, imitation and scaffolding also fall into the transactional model described by Piaget as when a child is active within his development.