FNI is designed to help the mother and her preterm infant engage in interactive biologically important activities and behaviors that enhance the maternally-mediated sensory experiences of preterm infants, as well as the infant-mediated sensory experiences of the mother.
Attachment is thought to develop over a period of time, as the adult and infant engage in interaction, and the infant organises his or her behavior around the care givers[ 21].
Mothers of VLBW/PT infants engaged in more playful touch across periods.
When the infants engaged in spontaneous breathing, the endotracheal tube was removed.
Mothers and infants engaged in a 10-minute joint play session, a ~3-minute separation, and a 5-minute reunion play session.
Once on the face, and having access to more visual detail, face-specific cortical mechanisms ensure that the more prototypical upright orientation maintains infants engaged with the face.
Infants engage in selective imitation by seven or eight months of age, and their imitations become more frequent and complex during the next two to three years.
This way, maternity leave can give mothers the opportunity to spend time with their infants, engage in positive and stress-free interactions, and learn to read a child's cues before they negotiate the stress of balancing parenting and work.
Beginning just after their first birthdays, infants engage in prosocial behavior, coming to the aid of strangers even in the absence of direct rewards.
Furthermore, preterm infants engage in fewer broad smiles, are relatively fussy and irritable, are more difficult to soothe, show more mixed behavioural cues, show more sensory-defensive behaviours and are described as more temperamentally difficult than term peers.
