At 24-months of age, toddlers (N = 62) and their mothers were observed in a free-play session to determine the contribution of (a) maternal sensory sensitivity to positive and negative infant facial expressions as measured in a signal detection task at 6 months (b) maternal behavior and affect, infant behavior and affect, and dyadic interaction at 9 months, and (c) infant attachment status at 12 months in predicting maternal, toddler, and dyadic measures at 24 months. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that over and above early maternal behavior, which was predictive of later maternal behavior at 24 months, sensory sensitivity to the positive infant expression at 6 months predicted maternal behavior at 24 months and sensory sensitivity to both the positive and negative expression was associated with later maternal affect. Infant attachment status emerged as the variable which predicted toddler behavior and dyadic interaction at 24 months.
Keywordssignal detection methodology; maternal sensory sensitivity; mother-infant interaction; infant attachment status; infant facial expressions The current study examined mother-toddler interaction patterns during play at 24 months by tracing their development longitudinally with respect to the potential influence of early maternal sensory sensitivity to infants' affective signaling at 6 months, maternal behavior and affect, infant behavior and affect, and dyadic interaction at 9 months, and infant attachment status at 12 months. Interaction between mothers and their infants provides opportunities for infants' socio-emotional learning and reflects the quality of dyadic interaction. Developing synchrony between a mother and her infant affords the infant reciprocal exchanges that facilitate social, emotional, and cognitive growth for the child (see Harrist & Waugh, 2002, for review). Early social play is frequently mentioned as an important relational context offering affective exchanges in the form of face-to-face play and attachment behaviors (Stern, 1995), exchanges which are thought to impact the child's development of self and others (Harel, Oppenheim, Tirosh, & Gini, 1999). Aspects of these earlier social play interactions change as the infant becomes more mobile to include exploration of the environment and manipulation of objects, with exploration of toys in the company of the mother being an important setting Corresponding author: Wilberta Donovan, Ph.D., Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1500 Highland Ave. Madison, WI 53705; Lewis Leavitt, Nicole Taylor, and Jennifer Broder are also at the Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin -Madison Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered...