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In this chapter, we argue that maternal sensitivity is best understood as a dyadic construct dynamically affected by transacting factors emerging from multiple levels of influence. Using principles from systems theory, our perspective focuses on maternal (caregiver) sensitivity as a component of the infant-caregiver communication system. We posit that infant-caregiver communication is a dyadic mutually-regulating system made up of an infant subsystem, a caregiver subsystem, and the dynamic interaction between them. The dynamic and dyadic mutually regulating infant-caregiver communication system scaffolds infants' intentional engagement with the world of people, things, and themselves, and consequently their making of new meanings about themselves in relation to the world. The quality of the interaction varies markedly among dyads and is dependent upon how clearly and effectively each partner is able to …