Parent–Child Synchrony

Parent–child synchrony refers to a style of face-to-face interaction that is reciprocal, balanced, smooth flowing, and mutually regulated. Engaging in synchrony appears to benefit the parent–child relationship as well as the child’s physiological, cognitive, and socioemotional development. Synchrony was originally used to describe harmonious interactions between mothers and their newborns but has since been observed to play a role for both mother–child and father–child dyads through adolescence, if not beyond. This entry describes the features and functions of parent–child synchrony across the child and adolescent periods of the life span.