Early interaction, occurring between a parent and a child of under two years of age, mainly consists of daily instances, such as nurturing and playing. It is an important part in the psychosocial development of a child. There is abundant data on early interaction of children with typical development. However, the research on early interaction of children with Down syndrome is much less available, although Down syndrome is the most common chromosomal cause of intellectual disability. Children with Down syndrome have special needs, which can cause additional stress for the parents. Taking this into consideration, as well as developmental challenges these children typically face, there is a need to provide families with support when it comes to early interaction.

The purpose of this thesis was to describe early interaction between the children with Down syndrome and their parents, as experienced by parents (n=6) of children with Down syndrome and by public health nurses (n=3), who have worked with children with Down syndrome. Inductive content analysis was used as the method of research and data was collected from semi-structured interviews with parents and public health nurses. Each of these two sets of data was analyzed separately.

Positive personality of children with Down syndrome and their ability and eagerness to seek human contact stood out as factors that improve early interaction. The ability of the parents to understand the needs of their children, along with the intense interaction during rehabilitation of their child, were distinct in the results. The weak expression of needs by children with Down syndrome, typical health problems and possible hospital stays are factors that may hinder early interaction by placing a strain on the parents as well as on the child. Support from health care professionals was considered contradictory. After giving birth to a child with Down syndrome, parents were not always treated properly at maternity hospitals. Sometimes parents had to fight for proper support later. On the other hand, early interaction between a parent and an infant grew stronger due to adequate rehabilitation.

It is necessary to conduct further research in order to expand the data on the early interaction of children with Down syndrome. This would broaden the expertise of public health nurses and help to develop new ways to support the early interaction between children with Down syndrome and their parents.