Infant/Parent Interaction: Studies and Intervention Guidelines Based on the SIAI Model

Social interactions between caregiver and infant provide the interpersonal context for the infant's development. However, research indicates that the prelinguistic communicative characteristics of infants with handicaps may differ from those of handicapped infants in ways which interfere with the ease with which pleasurable interactions are established. Intervention directed toward facilitating such interactions should therefore be a major component of any 0-3 program, and a number of models have been outlined for this purpose. One of these, the SIAI (McCollum, 1983) has recently been tested through a series of single subject research studies (McCollum, 1984; Stayton, 1984). The present paper illustrates the variety of ways in which the model was used in these studies, and draws from them a number of practical intervention guidelines gleaned both from the results of the studies and from the experiences of the interventionists who implemented the studies.