Fragile Infant Forums for Implementation of IFCDC Standards: The Infant as Baby as a Competent Interactor

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Joy V. Browne, Ph.D., PCNS, IMH-E

Foundations of what we know about the baby as a competent interactor

For humans, life is dependent on interaction with others for survival, nurturing, and social exchanges. At birth, a baby’s interaction is primarily dependent on sensory and physiologic exchange in concert with the mother or another essential care giving person, which we now refer to as the m(other). Each member of the
dyad brings their competence to the development of their own exceptional culturally appropriate relationship. These essential initial dyadic interactions lay a foundation for early development and beginning vocal and gestural communication. Also embedded in these early interactions is a rich emotional exchange that lays a foundation for attachment and bonding.

No longer is the baby considered a “tabula rasa” or “white paper, void of all characters,” whose mind is developed primarily through experience after birth. Those were the views of followers of John Locke, whose philosophical stance continued through the 20th century (1). We now know the baby comes well prepared with observable behaviors that signal the need for interaction with their familiar m(other). The baby communicates physiologically and with their state of arousal and motor skills. These interaction components are present in fetal life and at birth, regardless of the baby’s gestational age. They can indicate recognition and responsiveness to their mother’s taste, smell, sound, movement, and face. They even come with familiarity and responsiveness to the mother’s language and her community (2-5).

In the early 1970s, the work of T. Berry Brazelton and colleagues introduced the Newborn Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS), which described the many communicative behaviors of newborn babies, recognizing that they emerge from utero with a rich repertoire of organized behavior (6, 7). He emphasized that each baby has an individual temperament and ways of communicating right from birth. These observations and the development of the structured assessment (NBAS) articulated the behavioral repertoire of newborns and emphasized how babies strive to interact with their caregivers.

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    Disclosures: No author has professional or financial relation- ships with any companies that are relevant to this study. There are no conflicts of interest or sources of funding to declare.

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