This shows that in interaction during both feeding and face-to-face play the caregiver plays a dominant role in allowing the infant to interact in the relationship by responding to infant’s behaviours. At first there is the pseudo-dialogue where the infant has a very limited role. Over the first six months this develops to a more proto-dialogue where both play an active turn-taking role. Further examples of these interactions can be found from imitation.
Imitation is another key feature of early infant – caregiver’s relationships. The imitation of tongue protrusions, mouth opening, lip widening and pouting all play a large role in the pseudo-dialogue. These actions are natural (innate) actions that an infant makes from birth and research has shown that caregivers make use of this behaviour when interacting with the infant. Again, as with meshing, it has been found that the caregiver plays an active role in encouraging the infant. Pawley’s longitudinal study on infants aged from 4 to 10 months (1977, cited in Oates, 1994) found that mothers imitated their infants far more than the other way round. Between 4-6 months facial imitation was dominant, by 6 months the imitation of sound and hand movements appears but by 8 months imitation with objects dominated these interactions. Trevarthen (Oates, 1994) used the term primary intersubjectivity to describe the early interactions between infant and caregiver. When the introduction of objects starts dominating the interaction, Trevarthen described this as the start of the secondary intersubjectivity. This secondary intersubjectivity presents another key feature of the infant-caregiver relationship, scaffolding.
Scaffolding takes the turn taking rules of the interactions and allows the caregiver to show the infant how the same can happen whilst using objects. It is a way of interacting with an infant so that the caregiver controls the environment and allows the infant to take an active role as they learn. Bruner showed that caregivers create a series of actions with objects, which they then repeat over and over with the infant until the infant learns that their can do them by themselves. Bruner called this behaviour joint-action format (Oates, 1994). Bruner observed caregivers reading a book with an infant. The caregiver limited their speech to four responses, “Look”, “What’s that”, “it’s a X” and finally after a response from the infant, “That’s right”. Bruner concluded this was evidence for joint action formats and that the caregiver controlled the interaction with the use of an object through scaffolding. Wood et al’s (1976, cited in Oates, 1994) research supported Bruner’s joint-action format taking this idea further by suggesting that scaffolding could be broken down into three processes. Modelling, where the caregiver shows what can be done, Cueing, where the caregiver shows the infant what response is appropriate and finally, Raising the Ante, there the caregiver then encourages the infant to elaborate on the action so that more complex behaviours can be achieved. Bruner suggested that these joint-action formats were the foundations for learning language, with the caregiver teaching the infant the rules of conversation during the primary intersubjectivity and then encouraging objects that can be talked about during the secondary intersubjectivity.
When looking at how these features fit within the theories of child development it appears that many of the theories can be used to explain differing aspects of these first relationships. However, all features do appear to label the caregiver with the role of teacher and the infant as student, with the main aim of the caregiver as encouraging the infant to take an active role in their development. With this role of teacher/student, meshing, imitation and scaffolding do offer some evidence for Behaviourism.
Behaviourists see the infant as a machine that will react in a predicable way to stimulation from the environment. One predicable reaction is that positive reinforcement after behaviour will increase the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated. During interactions, the praise and attention given by the caregiver acts as a positive reinforcement for the infant and therefore, encourages the behaviour to be repeated by the infant. (Das Gupta, 1994) However, behaviourism does not allow for any internal process to be already present within the infant, as behaviourism does not accept that an infant is born with any innate processes in place but an infant is a blank sheet waiting to be written on.
These interactions all appear to have links with the Nativist theory of development, as the key features do appear to have innate structures in place that aid the interaction to occur. Chomsky’s theory of language development suggested that language was purely an innate process (Das Gupta, 1994). His supporting evidence for this is that sentences can be said by the speaker and understood by the listener even if they have never been heard before, therefore, have not been reinforced or imitated. Some of this is supported by previous research discussed in this essay, the infant does appear to have innate behaviours, such as the breaks whilst feeding that offer the caregiver the opportunity to interact with the child, but the studies of orphanages have shown that this innate behaviour is not enough to allow development without some input from the environment. One theory of development that does allow for these innate structures is Piaget’s theory of intellectual development (Das Gupta, 1994).
Piaget’s theory suggests that development takes place by a series of stages. The infant plays an active role in their development and will pass through each stage by the taking in of new knowledge by adapting previous knowledge. This Piaget called assimilation and accommodation. This theory of development is also known as a constructivist theory. Constructivists acknowledge that both innate structures and learning are important in development but they believe that it is the role of the infant to take the active role in constructing their knowledge with very little emphasis placed on the caregiver. As the role of infant and caregiver both appear equally essential in the infants development one other theory does appear to be supported by all the evidence shown. This is the social constructivist theory of development.
The social constructivist view of development argues that biology and environment by itself does not aid development. It suggests that for development the infant needs another person to interact with. It is the role of the other person to encourage the infant to take this active role in development. Vygotsky was a major social constructivism theorist. Vygotsky’s theory of development (Das Gupta, 1994) suggests that mental processes, such as language and memory come from culture and begin when the infant interacts with another person. He believed that development happened as a result of the internalisation of social interactions and the reconstruction of situations that is encountered over time The caregiver’s role is to introduce the infant to a situation, then to allow the infant to repeatedly encounter this situation, encouraging them to reconstruct the situation or the resolution required for the situation on their own without assistance. Therefore, from the studies shown in this essay evidence for meshing, imitation and scaffolding all give supporting evidence for the theories of social constructivism.
In conclusions, there are many features of the first infant – caregiver relationships that appear to aid infant development. Early interactions between infant and caregiver such as meshing and imitation are important for social and language development. Here the caregiver fits these interactions into the infant’s natural rhythms and encourages them to take an active role in further interactions. Although scaffolding, modelling and cueing are also aids in the development of language they are equally as important for developing infant interaction within their surrounding environment in general. Here the caregiver encourages the infant to initiate interactions with objects and language. These key features also give evidence for many of the theories of development. The innate structures in place from birth shown with the evidence of interaction support the Nativist theories and positive reinforcement and the subsequent repeating of behaviour supports the Behaviourists theory. Piaget’s stages of development is also supported by the way the infant assimilates and accommodates new knowledge. However, the supporting evidence for the Social Constructivists theory is possibly the strongest for these particular key features. Both the early interactions and scaffolding are behaviours, which are repeated many times, with the caregiver giving encouragement to the infant to take a proactive role in the repetition of the behaviour.
Word Count 1834
References:
Das Gupta, P. (1994) “Images of Childhood and theories of Development”, in Oates, J. (ed.) The Foundations of Development, Oxford, Blackwell/The Open University
Oates, J. (1994) “First Relationships”, in Oates, J. (ed.) The Foundations of Development, Oxford, Blackwell/The Open University
