Infants’ peer interaction in institutional foster care service

Abstract

Introduction: Based on the perspective of children’s intersubjectivity, it is understood that infants are able to interact with infants from a very early age. These interactions can offer important constitutive experiences for them.
 Objective: It was investigated how interactions between infants-infants/toddlers in institutional care occur, describing: the frequency of these interactions; the emotional-communicative resources involved; partners’ responsiveness; and the environmental organization.
 Methods: A qualitative, descriptive, and exploratory case study was conducted. Participants were focal baby (aged between 10 and 13 months) and their interactive peers (4 to 17 months) in institutional care. We used weekly video recordings for three months in the naturalistic context. The categories “attention orientation”, “search/maintenance of proximity”, “social exchanges”, and “responsiveness” were quantified and compared with the interaction between infant and caregiver. Interactive episodes were also thoroughly described.
 Results: Cribs, strollers, gates, and grids, with few toys available, marked the organization of the physical-social space. It was observed that the infants spent most of their time in individual activities (alone); and their social behaviors were more often directed to caregivers.
 The interactions between infants/toddlers were less frequent, although it was with the peers that social exchanges, joint activities, and co-regulated interactions occurred the most (with reciprocity and sharing). Peer responsiveness also involved empathic and pro-social behaviors (with experiences of interpersonal engagement), where attentional, emotional, and motivational processes operated.
 Conclusion: Peers interactions between infants/toddlers in institutional care were infrequent. However, when it occurred, the children showed sensitivity and responsiveness to their peers' emotional-communicative expressions. The organization of the institutional environment proved to be a relevant constraint of peer interactions: due to the material/spatial arrangement that made contact between children difficult; and by the absence of the adult as a promoter of these interactions. Finally, we call attention to the need for further investigations about interactive indicators of infants in institutional care.

Children’s Sociability in Institutional Contexts: Theoretical Reflections on Cognitive Development Within Peer Interactions

“…Moreover, babies/children not only smile at peers but with peers (Dentz 2016). Thus, it is verified that through various expressive and communicative resources (including emotions, vocalisations, gestures and movements), infants as well as small children address each other and (co)respond mutually (Amorim et al 2012;Costa and Amorim 2015;Moura et al 2020).…”

“…Within the specific field of early childhood, new studies have shown that infants and toddlers interact with peers from a very early age (Amorim et al 2012), highlighting differential patterns of communicative and expressive resources (Mendes and Seidl-de-Moura 2009) and specificities in the development of social engagement (Costa and Amorim 2015;Moura et al 2020). Other studies, discussing intermodal sensorimotor processes with synchronisation and coordination of actions, have shown how babies' interactions promote advances in children's ability to imitate their social partners, and through imitation, their behavioural and communicative repertoires expand (Bussab et al 2007;Ferreira 2017).…”

“…Other studies, discussing intermodal sensorimotor processes with synchronisation and coordination of actions, have shown how babies' interactions promote advances in children's ability to imitate their social partners, and through imitation, their behavioural and communicative repertoires expand (Bussab et al 2007;Ferreira 2017). In the same way, objects, toys and even the peer's actions have been shown to be attractive to infants, allowing, for example, the establishment of baby-baby-object interactions, which are considered fundamental for the development of joint attention (Costa and Amorim 2015) and coordinated joint engagement (Moura et al 2020). Therefore, it is widely known that interactions between children provide rich opportunities for developing interpersonal skills such as support, cooperation, empathy, imitation, learning and a wide range of children's competencies (Rubin et al 2008).…”

“…The physical contact established between Rosa and Lucas' walker materialised the encounter, but it was the following dynamic and particularly the eye contact between the children that materialised the engagement. Gaze has been one of the most observed facets in interactions among babies, enabling them to follow and respond to actions or movements and to communicate to others their interests and preferences-what could be interpreted as their intentions (Amorim et al 2012;Moura et al 2020). However, what we aim to highlight with this episode is that Lucas' approximation (accompanied by gaze, smile, vocalisation and movement) triggered or evoked a response from the peer (Rosa), and as described by Reddy (2015), we find that 'it is in the infant's responses to others' infant-directed intentional actions that others' intentions first become meaningful' (p. 24).…”

“…Enlarging the views of cognitivist approaches, the microanalysis of this empirical data reveal how in the coordinative, collaborative and communicative acts cognition is shaped by the bodily experience. Thus, the process of meaning-making takes place at a level of interpersonal perception, in tune with their own embodied experiences in each environment (Amorim and Rossetti-Ferreira 2008;Moura et al 2020).…”