When I move, you move: Associations between automatic and person-coded measures of infant-mother synchrony during free-play using virtual in-home data collection

The relationship between movement synchrony and global scores of behavioral synchrony were investigated during a naturalistic free-play between 33 infants (ages 12- to 24-months) and their mothers using a video-conferencing platform. We assessed movement synchrony by applying an automatic tool, motion-energy analysis (MEA), to the obtained video data. Dyadic movement synchrony was associated with higher levels of maternal sensitivity, infant involvement, dyadic reciprocity, and a child-led interaction pattern. This demonstrates the feasibility of using MEA as an automatic tool for assessing movement synchrony in mother-infant dyads and its application for investigating naturalistic at-home free play sessions in a remote setting.