Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Clinical Practice Protocol of Creative Music Therapy for Preterm Infants and Their Parents in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
11:50

Clinical Practice Protocol of Creative Music Therapy for Preterm Infants and Their Parents in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Published on: January 7, 2020

Caregiver--child interaction in infants and toddlers born extremely premature

Bonnie Keilty1, Maxine Freund

  • 1Depaprtment of Curriculum and Teacing, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA. keiltyeisman@att.net

Journal of Pediatric Nursing
|June 4, 2005
PubMed

Insights

Caregiver interaction with extremely premature infants was stable but lower than peers. This interaction predicted later child interaction, highlighting areas for developmental support.

Area of Science:

  • Neonatal Medicine
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Pediatric Care

Background:

  • Increasing incidence and survival rates of extremely premature infants necessitate understanding their developmental trajectories.
  • Caregiver-child interaction is a critical factor in early childhood development, particularly for vulnerable populations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To longitudinally examine caregiver-child interaction and child developmental status in extremely premature infants.
  • To compare caregiver interaction in this cohort with normative data.
  • To investigate the relationship between early caregiver interaction and later child outcomes.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal study of 41 primary caregiver-infant dyads.
  • Assessment of caregiver-child interaction and child developmental status at 9-13 months, 21-25 months (adjusted age), and 33-36 months (chronological age).
  • Comparison of caregiver interaction with a randomized computer database sample.

Main Results:

  • Caregiver interaction remained stable across the three assessment periods.
  • Caregiver interaction was significantly lower compared to cross-sectional normative samples.
  • Early caregiver interaction was associated with later child interaction, but not with child developmental status.

Conclusions:

  • Caregiver interaction patterns are established early and persist in extremely premature infants.
  • Intervention strategies may be needed to enhance caregiver interaction in this population.
  • Developmental surveillance should consider the unique interaction dynamics observed in extremely premature infants.

More Related Videos

Assessment and Evaluation of the High Risk Neonate: The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale19:15

Assessment and Evaluation of the High Risk Neonate: The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale

Published on: August 25, 2014

Home-Based EEG Hyperscanning for Infant-Caregiver Social Interactions08:08

Home-Based EEG Hyperscanning for Infant-Caregiver Social Interactions

Published on: May 31, 2024

Related Concept Videos

Parental Care00:55

Parental Care

Many animals exhibit parental care behavior, including feeding, grooming, and protecting young offspring. Parental care is universal in mammals and birds, which often have young that are born relatively helpless. Several species of insects and fish, as well as some amphibians, also care for their young.
Socioemotional Development during Infancy01:30

Socioemotional Development during Infancy

Socio-emotional development in infancy is primarily shaped by early emotional responses and social connections, with temperament playing a central role. Temperament refers to the consistent patterns in an individual's emotional and behavioral responses, observable even in infancy. By examining temperament, researchers can better understand an infant's unique ways of interacting with the world, influencing subsequent personality and socio-emotional growth.
Primary Temperament Types
Stella Chess...
Relationship with Parents: Attachment01:28

Relationship with Parents: Attachment

Parent-child interactions lay the foundation for how we understand relationships throughout life. These interactions are not uniform across families; instead, they are shaped by a range of environmental, emotional, and behavioral factors unique to each caregiver-child dynamic. Social psychologists study these early relationships to understand how patterns formed in infancy influence social functioning and interpersonal behavior in adulthood.Attachment Theory and Early Relational ModelsJohn...
Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development01:14

Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development

The sensorimotor stage, the initial phase of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, spans the first two years of a child's life. During this period, infants actively engage with their surroundings, building cognitive awareness through direct interaction with the world. This interaction is primarily based on sensory perception and motor actions, allowing infants to gradually understand basic physical properties and predict how objects interact within their environment.
Exploration...
Attachment01:20

Attachment

Attachment is vital for infant development, as warm social interactions support growth and well-being. In a classic 1958 study by Harry Harlow, the significance of warmth and comfort in forming attachments was examined. Harlow separated newborn monkeys from their mothers and provided two artificial "mothers": one made of cold wire and the other covered in soft cloth. Despite the wire mother offering food, the infant monkeys preferred the comfort of the cloth mother, demonstrating that physical...
Techniques of therapeutic communication I: Active Listening, Sharing Observations, Validation, and Using Touch01:15

Techniques of therapeutic communication I: Active Listening, Sharing Observations, Validation, and Using Touch

The history of therapeutic communication can be traced back to Florence Nightingale, who emphasized the importance of developing trusting relationships with patients. She taught that the presence of nurses with patients results in therapeutic healing.
Therapeutic communication is not the same as social interaction. Social interaction has no goal or purpose and consists of casual information sharing, whereas therapeutic communication has a plan or purpose for the conversation. Therapeutic...