Abstract
This paper includes a review of literature on early interaction behaviors of infants and how they compare to adult interaction behaviors, interactions of high-risk infants and their parents, relationships of early interactions to later development, and various manipulations of early interactions. Data are then presented on interaction coaching techniques used with 60 middle income mothers of preterm infants who experienced respiratoty distress syndrome. Manipulations which effectively diminished the activity levels of these extremely active mothers and enhanced their infants' visual attentiveness during interactions included mother imitation of all infant behaviors, repetition of phrases, and silencing during infants' pauses. Manipulations which were effective in increasing the amount of mother activity and the amount of infant visual attentiveness among a subsample of mothers who were very inactive were attention-getting and gameplaying manipulations. These results are discussed in the context of facilitating information processing and arousal modulation abilities of high-risk infants.