Fine and Visual Motor Development Emerging Through Infant and Maternal Reciprocity

RATIONALE AND BACKGROUND: Reciprocity is the mutual engagement between infant and caregiver involving bidirectional symmetry in actions and psychological states (Apicella et al., 2013). Decades of research support robust reciprocal relationships between caregiver and infant behavior and outcomes. However, more research is needed to examine complex bidirectional associations in infant–caregiver engagements with regard to multiple interactive domains of infant behavior (Clearfield et al., 2008; Iverson, 2010). Findings from a broader study looking at maternal–infant reciprocity with motor skills, 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). The purpose of this study was to identify and track the frequency and duration of infant–maternal bidirectional reciprocity-related behaviors for the categories of fine and visual motor development through video analysis of infant–maternal interactions.

METHOD: In this descriptive retrospective analysis study, the participants were 16 infant–mother dyads. In a play lab at a university in a rural area of the United States, mothers and their infants were observed and audio and video recorded as they interacted in the lab for 1 hour at a time when the infants were aged 8, 12, and 16 months. Data analysis occurred across the reciprocity collaborative team (researchers and research assistants) process; team members were from the disciplines of experimental psychology, clinical psychology, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology. Using Datavyu (Databrary, New York, NY), the infant–maternal interactions and behaviors during the middle 20 minutes of each 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 fine and visual motor development.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Across the 16 maternal–infant dyads, as the infants matured, their visual exploration, object management, object manipulation, and unilateral grasp shifted, increasing in duration (23.5%–27.75%) and decreasing in frequency (17.8%–33.24%). Tracking the frequency and duration of subconstructs related to typical infant–maternal bidirectional reciprocity provides a novel representation of how fine and visual motor development occurred over a small window of time. Increases in duration and decreases in frequency across all fine and visual motor domains are attributed to infants’ increased skill development and attention to objects versus caregivers.

IMPACT STATEMENT: By identifying and comparing developmental trajectories that are observable and unobservable across several months, this study may aid practitioners in recognizing the optimum timing of assessment and intervention when applied to infants and toddlers at risk for or with identified developmental disabilities.

References

Apicella, F., Chericoni, N., Costanzo, V., Baldini, S., Billeci, L., Cohen, D., & Muratori, F. (2013). Reciprocity in interaction: A window on the first year of life in autism. Autism Research and Treatment, 2013, 705895. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/705895

Clearfield, M. W., Osborne, C. N., & Mullen, M. (2008). Learning by looking: Infants’ social looking behavior across the transition from crawling to walking. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 100, 297–307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2008.03.005

Iverson, J. M. (2010). Developing language in a developing body: The relationship between motor development and language development. Journal of Child Language, 37, 229–261. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000909990432

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 meeting of the Western Psychological Association, Long Beach, CA.