van Dijk Marijn, van Voorthuizen Brenda, Cox Ralf F A
Heymans Institute of Psychological Research, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9012 TS Groningen, The Netherlands.
Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University of Nijmegen, Montessorilaan 3, 6525 HR Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Infant Behav Dev. 2018 Aug;52:97-103. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2018.06.001. Epub 2018 Jul 6.
In the weaning period, infants are introduced to solid food after being fed solely on milk, which involves a deliberate reorganization of the infant-caregiver feeding interaction. This multiple case study, involving 5 dyads with 10 repeated observations, analyzed its dynamical structure using Cross-Recurrence Quantification Analysis. The results showed that an optimal interaction occurs when the caregiver is leading by roughly 1-2 seconds. During the weaning period, all dyads showed signs of increased synchronization, although there are interesting differences between dyads. These findings indicate that infant-caregiver dyads co-regulate their behavior within a relatively short period.
