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Speak to me, Baby!

Posted by admin at 10:30 am

Ten years ago, I moved to Leipzig, Germany to start up an infant development research laboratory. There was just one problem–at the time, I didn’t know a single word of German! For a researcher of infant development, this was a useful experience as I was suddenly encountering the world in much the way that young babies do. Perhaps, I even used some of the same strategies as the young infant to learn language. I can tell you that if I were an infant, I would have learned much more efficiently! What a different experience I would have had if I had been fluent from the start.

One of the most common questions about infant cognition concerns second (and third) language acquisition. I am fascinated by a new study on language acquisition by a top international infant lab. The study, “The Roots of Bilingualism in Newborns” Psychological Science, 343-348 is authored by K. Byers-Heinlein, T. Burns, J. Werker. They tested several groups of newborn infants. Some infants had mothers who spoke only English during pregnancy. Other infants had mothers who spoke both English and Tagalog during pregnancy. When the babies were born and less than 5 days old, the researchers tested newborns’ preference for languages. Babies could suck on a pacifier to hear contingent sentences that alternated between the two languages. The researchers could then assess how much babies sucked in order to hear the two languages. Babies whose mothers spoke English only during pregnancy preferred hearing English. Those babies whose mothers spoke English and Tagalog during pregnancy showed an equal preference for both languages. This elegant study highlights the amazing perceptual, learning, and language abilities that unfold even before infants are born.

If you are bi-lingual, let your infant take advantage – speak, read, and play with your baby in the languages you know. It is never too early to learn languages. So, you are not bilingual? Never fear! Introduce your child to various cultures early on. Foreign films, multi-lingual playmates, language classes, foreign artists, restaurants and museums are just some of the ways that you can inspire your child to engage in new languages. Take home message: It is never too early to inspire a love of learning, cultures, and foreign language! © Tricia Striano

Please pick that up, Daddy!

Posted by admin at 8:23 am

Some people like to look at fish swimming in aquariums, some like to watch the Yankees try to hit a baseball (or Red Sox actually hit it), some people like to go bird watching… I like to watch babies –I especially love to watch infants and children  in the hustle and bustle of New York City where there is so much always happening.  As most people are on the lookout  for cars, busses, actors… looking at shop windows and maps…. I am looking out for the behavior of New York Baby!   Today I observed beautiful social engagement of an 8-11 month old blond baby visiting New York City from Sweden (I guess!)

I discovered the  boy by the Helmsley hotel. He was holding a magazine that his parents (and a friend) gave him so he would be entertained.  The three adults were starring at a map… taking just a little too long..determining if they should be going East or West… North or South…

The baby looked up from his carriage… determined that nobody was (on the surface) paying attention to him… He then dropped the magazine on the ground… looked up to his father (KEY BEHAVIOR) …  His dad picked up the magazine, looked at him, smiled .. and returned to the map….  

What is the message here… Babies need attention.. and social contact.. when they don’t get it, they have discovered clever ways to seek it out…  To the dad, it may have seemed like the baby had just dropped the magazine and needed him to reach for it to get it back.. However, this was intentional behavior by this clever little infant…  Had the baby just started to laugh.. maybe dad would have kept reading the map… because there was an immediate reason for dad to stop what he was doing (i.e., magazine dropped to the ground)… the baby got just the information he needed… Mom  and dad are not looking at me…  but the are still with me… Everything is under control… Now let me get back to this magazine! 

What baby behavior did you observe today?

Media Matters

Posted by admin at 8:38 pm

New research published in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology (2010), 28, 699-725 reports the link between violent media and  school achievement.  ”Media use and school achievement” : The authors Moessle, Kleimann, Rehbein, & Pfeiffer tested several thousand 4th grade children and showed that the more time students spend engaged in media and the more violent the media, the worse grades the children obtained in school.   

Children who engaged with more violent media did worse in school regardless of their family background, family education level, or immigration background.   Violent media does not discriminate – -Violent media does lead to bad grades.  

What can your child do rather than play violent video games  - how about play sports?  draw?  run?  help cook dinner?  study?  volunteer…

Questions about death

Posted by admin at 8:10 am

The primary goal of howbabieslearn is to bring research to the public.  We count on parents to let us know your questions and the topics that you would like to see written about.  At the moment, we are working on more than five new themes – including Bullies, Socio-Emotional Development, and Nutrition. I received one theme several months ago and started researching it right away…  My research team does not always have the answers… But we do have the drive and know-how to find them for you. 

Who are the experts in the field? What do we know? How can we translate that research into a book for children and parents?   The theme is how to talk to children about death, how to help them cope with death, what do they understand?   The theme continues to come up and I continue to search for answers…   The majority of information that I found thus far did not seem to be research based/inspired.  One article said that small children understand more about death than we think because children see dead flies and animals on the road etc… But I could not easily find any research to support this view.  And I was left with more questions.  At what age?  What is the process?  What other developmental milestones were related (i.e., theory of mind? inanimate/animate distinction?) 

 Today I found a blog written by Dr. Bruce Perry and Dr. Jana Rubenstein — to date it was the most clearly written information that I could find.  Bruce Perry is an MD and PhD and based on my investigation is a highly respected and published researcher.   I hope that I can convince his team to write a book on this topic.  I will keep you posted!  In the meanwhile, here is the link below, “Child’s Loss: Death, Grief & Mourning” by Dr. Bruce Perry.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/bruceperry/child_loss.htm#bruce

Parents – write to our Blog or Facebook page with your comments. What worked for you?   Our research is often inspired by your input, questions, and – your answers!   Researchers – what do you know or what advice can you offer parents as they communicate about death with young children?   Guidelines as a function of child age seem to be needed.

Speak to me!

Posted by admin at 7:16 am

Ten years ago, I moved to Leipzig, Germany to start up an infant development research laboratory.  There was just one problem– at the time, I didn’t know a single word of German!  For a researcher of infant development, this was a useful experience as I was suddenly encountering the world in much the way that young babies do.  Maybe, I even used some of the same strategies as the young infant to learn language. I can tell you that if I were an infant, I would have learned much more efficiently!  What a different experience I would have had if I had been fluent from the start.  

One of the most common questions about infant cognition concerns second (and third) language acquisition. I am fascinated by a new study on language acquisition by a top international infant lab.  The study, “The Roots of Bilingualism in Newborns” Psychological Science, 343-348 is authored by K. Byers-Heinlein, T. Burns, J. Werker.  They tested several groups of newborn infants. Some infants had mothers who spoke only English during pregnancy.  Other infants had mothers who spoke both English and Tagalog during pregnancy.  When the babies were born and less than 5 days old, the researchers tested newborns’ preference for languages.  Babies could suck on a pacifier to hear contingent sentences that alternated between the two languages.  The researchers could then assess how much babies sucked in order to hear the two languages.  Babies whose mothers spoke English only during pregnancy preferred hearing English.  Those babies whose mothers spoke English and Tagalog during pregnancy showed an equal preference for both languages.   This elegant study highlights the amazing perceptual, learning, and language abilities that unfold even before infants are born.

If you are bi-lingual, let your infant take advantage – speak, read, and play with your baby in the languages you know.   It is never too early to learn languages. So, you are not bilingual?  Never fear!  Introduce your child to various cultures early on.  Foreign films, multi-lingual playmates, language classes, foreign artists, restaurants and museums are just some of the ways that you can inspire your child to engage in new languages.  Take home message: It is never too early to inspire a love of learning, cultures, and foreign language!  © Tricia Striano, howbabieslean.com

Crickets, Infants, Autism, & NYC Sirens

Posted by admin at 7:23 am

I awoke this morning to the blaring siren of an emergency fire engine.  It made me think of what it must be like to be a New York Baby.  What do we know about the way that infants process and makes sense of unfamiliar sounds in their environment?  How do such skills develop?  Social referencing is the ability to seek and to use others’ emotion cues to guide one’s own behavior.  Over the last decade my infant research laboratories did several studies on the ability of preverbal infants to use social cues to guide their behavior.  We wanted to know, do infants look to people who give them consistent social cues?  (1, 2)  Do infants look to people when a situation is threatening or merely when it is ambiguous? (3).  How do these skills develop?   Even before infants can crawl, walk and talk, they use others’ expressions and gaze cues and link these to new objects in the environment.  By three months of age (and maybe even earlier) the infant brain even reacts differently to novel objects depending on the way they are gazed at and depending on the emotion they see directed at them.  We also know that infants pay attention to emotional vocal cues (4, 5) and use vocal cues in deciding how and when to approach objects.    In the majority of studies, infants’ behavior or brain activity has been assessed in relation to a new object or person. We know much less about the way that infants process and respond to others’ social cues that reference novel sounds…. How does the infant understand and respond to the sounds of crickets in the country and Saturday morning sirens in New York City?  How do others’ social cues impact this process?  This is also a highly relevant question (I will return to it) for infants who may be at risk for autism. One step in ameliorating some of the symptoms associated with autism is helping the infant brain to decipher and react to relevant information.  When should we look to others when dealing with new auditory situations?  The siren kept moving this morning….I didn’t need to check with anyone to determine there was no fire in my building.  Had the siren suddenly stopped, I may be calling the doorman for cues rather than pondering the impact and development of auditory social referencing.

“Dax?” How should I know?

Posted by admin at 6:32 am

Place 5 new and unfamiliar objects on a table.  Ask your child, where is the “Dax”?   Your child will likely look to your face, trying to gather some more  information. The child is likely thinking, What in the world is this person talking about?  There are five new objects here, how should I know for what (!@*!@) object you are asking? Put yourself in the world of the child… That is what we do as researchers of early infant and child development.   Take a look at the books that you read with your child.   I just happen to have a book from a major New York publisher here… it is among the many books that inspired us to develop this website and blog (not to mention some new books!).

The front of the alphabet  book that I have indicates it is for 2 year olds.  Take out a piece of paper and make a grid with 8 equal sized squares.  In the first square, write the letter “K”  on the second right “L” (but make it look like an i), then “O with an orange” on the next square,  on the next square write, “I am a bird that flies at night”  on the next square write “M with a motorcycle”  next “N” P is for Pencil.. next square write,  ”I’m a baby dog?”  What am I?

On the top of the page, write the question “What P do you wear at night?”

Show your  2 year old child the page that you just drew out… this is a schematic of a page from an educational book that you may have just purchased from a famous publishing house on 5th Avenue…

Now ask your 2 year old child, “What P do you wear at night?”   “I’m a bird that flies at night. “What am I?  (according to the book the answer should be “owl”  If your child gets these questions correct on trial 1… without your assistance… and without becoming confused and possibly annoyed… Then I will give up my day job and send in my application to the nameless publishing house..  If your child does not answer correctly… then I have made my point.

How should a child know what an owl is?  This was not reviewed in the prior pages of the book…and “owl” is not among the top words known by young children. We wonder why children often do not like learning.. that is likely because we are confusing them with books and materials that are not age appropriate and well thought out.  A very basic understanding of the importance of referential cues in early learning would have resulted in a very different interaction, learning exercise and outcome.

Now take the paper you drew on… roll it into a ball and play catch with your child… that is interactive synchrony at its finest… and a first step in communication and learning.

A Little Sangria Goes a Long Way

Posted by admin at 12:46 pm

First and foremost, I do hope that Angela Merkel will remember this when it comes time to bail out Spain.  Speaking of bailing out – and early infant and child development – what is with the third place World Cup game?   Why are trophies now given to both little league teams when one team lost?  Why are we scared to tell small that children that they lost?  Would this mean that we would have to tell them to work harder?   There is little research on the topic that I am aware of, but in my opinion, it is OK to teach kids how to lose.  They need to hear… the other team worked harder. The other team kicked the ball faster. They shot more. They won.  You lost, but will get them the next time. Kids also need to learn that life is sometimes unfair – why was Thomas Muller not in that game?   Because life is sometimes unfair and people do not always play by the rules…  No pain. No gain.  This is why sports are so good for kids. What goes around comes around. ..Learn these skills early.  Keep at it, Germany.  Immer Geradeaus… See you in 2014!

Feel it, baby!

Posted by admin at 12:02 pm

New research appearing in Science links social cognition and haptic perception among adults (Incidental Haptic Sensations Influence Social Judgments and Decisions. By J.M. Ackerman, C.C. Nocera, J.A. Bargh. Science, Volume 328 No. 5987, June 22, 2010).   I have always found haptic perception to be a fascinating topic. In fact, my first study as a PhD student was about the way that 3 month old infants perceived properties of objects such as texture and temperature in their hands.   This study was done with Dr. Emily Bushnell, a leading researcher of cross modal and intermodal perception and cognition at Tufts University, Department of Psychology. The study, Haptic perception of material properties by 3-month-old infants was published in Infant Behavior & Development (Striano, & Bushnell, 2005, 266–289).

We had 3 month old infants touch little “dumbbells” in a pitch dark room in order to determine if they could perceive properties such as weight, texture, and temperature.   You should be asking how we could find the baby in the room!  We placed glow in the dark tape on the infant so we could “see” the baby!   You have to be very creative when you are an infancy researcher.  Infants were habituated to the various objects and we measured the amount of time that they held these.  When infants were tested in a dark room, they discriminated stimuli which differed from one another in texture, temperature, compliance, and weight.   When the lights were on, infants did not seem to distinguish the objects that they held.   This study suggests the important links between attention and perception.  As in the studies of Ackerman and colleagues, attention, haptic perception and social cognition are in interaction.  

So much more research is needed in terms of understanding the development of haptic perception, specifically as it relates to social cognition.  There are many studies showing that infants are highly influenced by touch, especially by excellent research teams such as Dale Stack and Tiffany field, especially from the 1990s.  We know that touch has a dramatic influence on infant behavior.  We do not know nearly as much about how touch may relate to social cognition in infants.

My own lab has done dozens of studies over the last decade showing that infants are sensitive to social cues such as eye contact and facial expressions.  We have also done a number of studies on cross modal integration of faces and voices.   However, much work is still needed on the integration of other modalities – such as touch or movement.

Here are some questions that I hope someone will answer –  Does touch or holding a soothing or vibrating object modulate the effect of angry facial expressions directed at infants?  Or fearful expressions directed away?   How is the infant memory or attention to a new toy influenced by properties of those objects?   Do infant directed social cues (calling the infant by name, using eye contact, etc.) while holding a new object, influence later haptic attention to the object?  Does this transfer to the visual modality?  How do such skills develop in the first year and what are the underlying neural mechanisms? How do such processes work in children with social impairments such as autism?  How can we create more optimal learning and relational environments by applying these findings?

Selected papers:

Grossmann, T., Striano, T. & Friederici, A.D. (2006). Crossmodal integration of emotional information from face and voice in the infant brain. Developmental Science, 9, 309-315

Hoehl,S. & Striano, T. (2008). Neural processing of eye gaze and threat-related emotional   facial expressions in infancy. Child Development, 79(6), 1752-1760.

Striano, T. & Reid, V.M. (2006). Social cognition in the first year. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10, 471-476.

Striano, T. & Vaish, A. (2006). Seven- to 9-month-old infants use facial expressions to interpret others´action. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 24, 753-760.

Striano, T. & Reid, V. (2008). Social cognition at the crossroads: Perspectives on understanding others. In T.Striano & V. Reid (Eds). Social Cognition: Development,Neuroscience and Autism. Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.

Hoehl, S., Reid, V., Parise, E., Handl, A., Palumbo, L., & Striano, T. (2009). Looking at  eye gaze processing and its neural correlates in infancy: Implications for social  development and autism spectrum disorder. Child Development, 80(4) 968-985.

Sing to me, Daddy!

Posted by admin at 7:46 am

One question that I often receive after I give a talk on infant development is, what is impact of fathers in early social and cognitive development?   Given that today is Father’s Day, it is a good time to write about fathers and infants.

It is true that researchers know a lot more about the role of mothers in early parent and infant interaction. However, this is starting to change as top labs from around the world look to the role of fathering on early infant development.  I think this will continue to be a hot topic for many years to come, especially as some European countries (Way to go, Sweden!) provide incentives for fathers to take paternity leave.  

One study that I recently discovered is by a well-known and exceptional research team in Canada.  They had fathers sing to their infants or sing in the absence of their infants.   When fathers were singing to their infants they were perceived as more rhythmic, loving, and appropriate.   This means that fathers naturally adapt to their infants.  Patters of mother singing and fathers singing differed.   Compared to fathers, mothers raised their pitch when singing to infants.   However, infants looked longer at their fathers when they sang compared to when their mothers sang.   Fathers have a unique singing style that infants find engaging!   Singing may help infants and fathers to interact and bond!   Give it a try.   For any researchers out there reading this blog, it would also be interesting to know how singing by mothers and fathers impacts early infant learning and relevance detection. Want to read more on this topic? Check out:

O’Neil, C., Traior, L. & Trehub, S. (2001). Infants’ response to father’s singing.  Music Perception, 18, 409-425.