How children get ‘in sync’ with their caregivers and how optimal synchrony benefits child development, health and wellbeing

Research overview

This project aims to investigate child-caregiver bio-behavioural synchrony using fNIRS hyperscanning. High quality child-caregiver interactions are crucial for child development, health and wellbeing. Children with available, responsive and sensitive caregivers show fewer behavioural problems, higher academic achievement and better mental and physical health and wellbeing. It was recently suggested that better child-caregiver interaction quality is linked to higher child-caregiver bio-behavioural synchrony (BBS) – i.e., the tight coordination and reciprocity of behaviour, physiology and brain activity. However, two central questions remain unanswered. First, when is high BBS most beneficial and when can it have detrimental effects on child development, health and wellbeing? Second, how does child-caregiver BBS differ in families with neurodiverse children and how could it be optimised through future interventions?