Parent-Child Interactions

now what do you doing oh yeah are you tired hmm does the pumpkin need a little Matt had a pretty big day huh per child interaction is extremely important to a child's development particularly in the very early years both the quality and quantity of interaction between the parent and child vary tremendously some of this variation may be related to the personality of the parent and/or the child however variation in the way parents and children interact is also related to the parents knowledge of positive interactions and their ability and motivation to use those techniques there is no one right or best way to interact with a child of any specific age however there are many very good things which parents can do to enhance their interactions with their children the mothers and babies in this videotape were filmed on a home video tape series as a part of the mothers of newborns home visitation project a research project sponsored by the Iowa stat team will view mothers interacting with their infants who are approximately two months old we've selected eight behaviors all of which characterize positive interactions with babies of this age these are excellent examples of the particular behaviors although the technical quality of the tape is not always so good while this is certainly not an exhaustive list of positive parental behaviors for this age group it is a somewhat inclusive list these behaviors include physical contact holding the baby playing with a baby looking at the baby smiling at the baby saying the baby's name and using social and referential speech with the baby obviously each parent will use some of these interactive behaviors more than others associated with each of these behaviors is an important variable which we call responsiveness responsiveness refers to the parents actions which are in response to the baby's activity state situation signal or vocalization behavior which is responsive is very appropriate and positive this does not mean that a parent should not initiate behavior but rather that such initiation takes into account the child's readiness at that particular moment the interactions which we'll see show how responsiveness is manifested in the eight interactive behaviors almost all the segments selected to illustrate these behaviors also illustrate other behaviors even though we will focus on only one behavior in each illustrative segment the first mothers illustrate physical contact physical contact includes hugging kissing caressing fondling ruffling the baby's hair and cuddling it may also include deliberate active physical stimulation rocking bouncing tickling and physical games such as Pat a cake or roughhousing with the baby it involves the mother touching the baby these mothers show variations of physical contact from the deliberate stimulation of the first mother to the soft touching in the last segment huh change of shoes yeah yeah oh boy I could take my clothes off here we go there we are there we are hey let's get you mama's got you know she does she does oh boy now we're talking my hands together in the next segment the mothers illustrate holding the baby babies need a lot of holding and parents don't need to worry about doing it too much the first mother is holding her baby while playing and the other is holding her baby to feed her oh yeah Oh sit up like a big boy next we see the mothers actively playing with the child although the first mother uses the commercial toy she could also use her fingers as the second mother does or a book or other material or even play a game with the child you need some pretzels don't you don't have any pretzels pretzels ya need the exercise that double chin yes you do ah bad oh I took it too fast here it is yeah I knew that that makes more noise doesn't it kick kick kick kick it Julie can't mercy let's do this can we see you can follow loves hands huh follow my hand that's good where's the car where's it going where is it going Stephanie where'd it go where'd it go it let me hand in it see you even while they went me head the next mother is a good example of looking at the infant she focuses on the baby's face for some time longer than a glance babies like faces and will engage in mutual looking for several seconds Oh cleanest now we'll watch a simple behavior a smile which is often overlooked the mother smiles and laughs at the baby and shows other positive nonverbal expressions in the next segment note the mothers use of the baby's name both alone or in a sentence I think you can grow a little bit falling this thing you've got a lots of room okay you're all done yeah my eyes get so big big big oh it kind of bouncing around a little bit don't they just kind of your usual smile will give a bit of I can't see his mine any other toy we got here like pretzels you want to take it in your hand okay put it on like a bracelet here let's put that in your hand see if you take it I don't think you will very long I'm gonna drop it I did no I just don't feel like playing with it right now now let's focus on social speech social speech includes singing whistling whispering verbal games such as peekaboo verbally soothing the baby or using single responsive words such as oops or o or short responsive questions such as what do you want or what's the matter it also includes praise and verbal expressions of positive feelings we'll watch several mothers engaged in social speech with their babies note the responsiveness of both the mothers and babies in these segments well how do you do are you doing pretty good or not so good look there's no way I can know anything if you don't tell me stories can you tell me the story can you tell me a story love ya well then What did he say after he said that then with these oh really if the hell have you said well then what did you say back to him hmm did you say something back to him did you probably not I didn't have anything else to say did you have anything to say huh well then what did you say oh I see well then I'll bet that shut him up didn't it huh I'll bet that just oh here we go oh my shirt look like a big girl oh well I'll be darned that must have made you pretty upset when he said that didn't it oh oh well that's the way you feel about it okay can you tell me that story okay Oh Cassie come and see what sweet baby oh yes you was that making that yeah what happened really Oh finally referential speech is different from social speech in that the mother refers to the environment labeling it giving the baby information about objects toys people or other things notice how this mother describes the toy to her baby tonight so we see there are many ways to interact positively with infants while there is no recipe for positive interaction there is an observable difference between good and poor interaction in poor interaction there would be an absence of the positive types of behaviors we've Illustrated here it's always a matter of degree in both quality and quantity additionally poor interaction might include not only less of the positive interactions shown here but also negative interactions such as negative vocalizations to the baby intent is also important the same words spoken either for fun or for scolding can have tremendously different meanings for the child we've seen examples using mothers but obviously this material applies to fathers also we hope both fathers and mothers will take advantage of this information to enhance their parenting skills fathers mothers and other caretakers can enhance both the quality and quantity of interaction with children interaction needs to be responsive varied and individual interaction is the key to the child's total development can you tell me that one again oh wow I'll be done isn't that what happened really then what happened huh then what happened okay then you said that then what a tease day huh what were you talking to her he or she oh I see well did you tell him you were tired and you wanted to take a nap and you couldn't come out and play