How a rejecting baby affects mother-infant synchrony.

In any mother-infant relationship, characteristics of both the mother and infant contribute to an ongoing process of mutual modification of behaviour. With intensive observation and objective recording of behaviours, it is possible to describe individual infants, depict patterns of interaction with their mothers, and identify some of the consequences of interaction for both the mother's and the infant's developing behaviours. Even a normal infant can have behaviour patterns that play a disruptive role in the relationship. For example, an infant has been observed who, from birth through the first weeks of life, showed avoidance responses to being picked up and held. The infant's behaviour was a source of frustration and confusion to the unsuspecting parents. It is obviously difficult for the parents to respond appropriately to the needs of such an infant. And, in turn, the resulting interaction affects the infant's developing behaviours. The theme of this paper is to emphasize, though each relationship is unique, that observations made from the first days of life can permit the infant's contribution to the mother-infant relationship, and the manner in which that relationship influences his development, to be assessed.