Enhancing Sensitive Caregiving: Comparing Narration and Mimicking Strategies in Mother–Child Interactions

Abstract

Caregiver sensitivity during early interactions represents a critical factor in infant development and attachment security, yet evidence-based strategies to enhance sensitivity among parents remain limited. The present study examines whether a brief, targeted manipulation—requiring minimal effort or time investment—can meaningfully improve caregiver sensitivity. Mothers and their 6-month-old infants (N = 129; 77 male infants) from a large metropolitan city in the central southeastern part of the United States participated in a 10-minute “free play” interaction, coded in 2-minute epochs for degree of caregiver sensitivity. Prior to the final epoch, mothers were randomly assigned to "narrate" their infant's actions or "mimic" their infant's behaviors. A control group of mothers received no instructions. Consistent with our hypotheses, analyses of within-person changes in sensitivity revealed that mothers instructed to narrate their infant’s actions were significantly more sensitive after receiving these instructions than they were before receiving these instructions. Contrary to our hypotheses, mothers instructed to mimic their child’s actions were significantly less sensitive after receiving the instructions than they were before receiving the instructions. Mothers assigned to the control group did not statistically significantly change in sensitivity. Our findings suggest that narrating an infant's actions, a simple practice for parents, may enhance caregiver sensitivity, whereas imitating the actions of preverbal infants may not be beneficial for increasing sensitivity at this developmental stage. This research contributes to our understanding of how brief, evidence-based, and easily implementable caregiving strategies can promote optimal parent–child interactions from infancy.