Date Presented 3/30/2017
Infant–maternal reciprocity may be captured and represented through play. Play construction, purpose, object choice, and type were observed and coded using a retrospective analysis, demonstrating an increase in frequency and duration in most categories.
Primary Author and Speaker: Bryan Gee
Additional Authors and Speakers: Susan Kunkel
Contributing Authors: Hillary Swann, Nancy Devine, Nicholas Burgett, Nicki Aubuchon-Endsley, Michele R. Brumley, Heather Ramsdell-Hudock
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Decades of research support robust reciprocal relationships between caregiver and infant behavior and outcomes. However, more research is needed to examine complex bidirectional associations between infant–caregiver engagements with regard to multiple interactive domains of infant behavior. The purpose of this study was to identify and track frequency and duration of infant–maternal bidirectional reciprocity-related behaviors, play performance, and participation via video analysis of infant–maternal interactions. The categories of play performance and participation included play construction, play purpose, play object choice, and play type. These were based upon the work of Knox (2008); Pierce, Munier, and Myers (2009); and Harness and Bundy (2001). Findings from a broader study looking at maternal–infant reciprocity with motor, co-occupation, emotional reciprocity, and language suggested that developmental trajectories could be tracked through behavioral observation and coding and aligned with criterion-referenced assessments (Swann et al., 2016).
DESIGN: This study was a descriptive retrospective analysis. Participants were two mothers and their infants from a larger sample of 20 infant–mother dyads.
METHOD: Using a play lab at a university in a rural portion of the United States, we observed the mothers and their infants and audio and video recorded them as they interacted in a lab for an hour at a time at the infants’ age of 8, 12, and 16 mo. Data analysis occurred across the reciprocity collaborative team (researchers and research assistants) process and included experimental psychology, clinical psychology, occupational therapy, and speech–language pathology. Using Datavyu software (Databrary, New York), the infant–maternal interactions and behaviors during the middle 20 min of the session were coded using coding schemes developed via experimental and clinical psychology and occupational therapy. Behaviors, movements, interactions, and so forth were coded tracking duration and frequency of behaviors related to play performance and participation.
RESULTS: Across the two maternal–infant (typically developing) dyads, the frequency of play construction, play purpose, and play object choice frequency (number of times) and duration (in min) increased over time. The infants’ play type decreased in both frequency and duration as the infants matured in two categories (sensory–motor and construction). The greatest increases were in the area of play construction, with an average increase of 7:30 min, and play object choice, with an average increase of 2:40 spanning the three 20-min observation sessions.
DISCUSSION: Tracking the frequency and duration of subconstructs related to typical infant–maternal bidirectional reciprocity provides a novel representation of how play performance and participation evolve over a small window of time. Using the constructs of play construction, purpose, object choice, and type provides a simple framework for evaluating play-based behaviors as they relate to the interaction between caregiver and infant. Additionally, the constructs that can be coded to evaluate change over time proved to be valuable in documenting change in developmental trajectory.
CONCLUSION: The observation and coding process may be applicable in clinical practice to provide an occupation-based process of tracking changes in behavior that is meaningful to occupational therapy and the development of relationships and function in infants. Identifying and comparing developmental trajectories across months may aid in recognizing optimum timing of assessment and intervention when applied to at-risk or identified infants and toddlers with developmental disabilities.
References
Harkness, L., & Bundy, A. C. (2001). The Test of Playfulness and children with physical disabilities. OTJR: Occupation, Participation and Health, 21, 73–89. https://doi.org/10.1177/153944920102100203
Knox, S. (2008). Development and current use of the revised Knox Preschool Play scale. In L. D. Parham & L. S. Fazio (Eds.), Play in occupational therapy for children (pp. 55–70). St. Louis, MO: Mosby Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-032302954-4.10003-0
Pierce, D., Munier, V., & Myers, C. T. (2009). Informing early intervention through an occupational science description of infant–toddler interactions with home space. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 63, 273–287. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.63.3.273
Swann, H., Hambleton, J., Aubuchon-Endsley, N. L., Brumley, M. R., Gee, B., Ramsdell-Hudock, H., & Devine, N. (2016, April). The RECIPROCITY Project: The influence of infant–caregiver interactions on offspring developmental trajectories. Poster presented at the Western Psychological Association Annual Convention, Long Beach, CA.
