Degree Name
Master of Science
Department or Program
Communication Disorders and Sciences
Advisor
Boyer, Valerie E.
Abstract
Early intervention focusing on the interaction between premature infants and their parents as an attempt to increase their developmental outcomes has been evaluated in a number of studies. This paper will review the literature about the effects of early intervention on parent-infant interaction, specifically focusing on premature infants. This topic is being studied because the efficacy of how interaction affects the development of parent-infant interaction for premature infants and their parents needs to be determined. This will help researchers and parents develop successful methods to lessen the difficulty of interaction between parents and their premature infants. By providing such evidence, parents can implement these early intervention techniques into their interaction with their premature infants to create a closer bond with them. It is believed that early intervention, specifically with premature infants, is critical to create successful parent-infant interaction. Once this interaction is established, communication between the parent and child will increase significantly. The purpose of this paper is to examine multiple research studies to determine the validity of this claim.