Research that Benefits Babies

While this is not a published research article, but the "Still Face" experiment I think is fascinating involves the use of children to prove a research theory.  I am embedding the link to the ZERO TO THREE website so if you have not watched the experiment previously you will have the opportunity to watch and I look forward to hearing your responses about the experiment. 

 

This video clip is excerpted from ZERO TO THREE's Helping Babies From the Bench: Using the Science of Early Childhood Development in Court.  The video was developed by ZERO TO THREE for judges working in family court to use as a basis in helping them make decisions about the best interest of young children.  The entire video can be obtained from ZERO TO THREE for free.  The entire video is great and I think a must have for any early childhood professional.  The link to view the excerpted video clip is as follows:  http://main.zerotothree.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ter_stillface.

 

The Still Face paradigm, designed by Edward Tronick, is an experimental procedure for studying infant social and emotional development. During the experiment, an infant and a parent interact playfully before the parent suddenly stops responding and looks away. After a short period, the parent reengages with the infant. The infant’s reaction to a suddenly unresponsive parent and his or her behavior when the parent resumes interaction, have been used to study many aspects of early social and emotional development (ZERO TO THREE, 2010).

 

The risk/benefit around the "Still Face" experiment is minimal because of the duration of the experiment.  While the child does experience distress it is only for a short amount of time and the child recovers because the mom begins to provide love and attention.  The benefit of this experiment is that we get to see the effects of children not getting the attention they seek and if that continues over time the lasting impact it has on their brain development.  This is a very powerful experiment and we have integrated this into our Infant, Toddler and Two's Early Learning Guidelines training so that teachers of children in this age group can see the importance of meeting the babies needs and providing them appropriate attention.

 

 

 

 

Reference

ZERO TO THREE. (2010).  Still Face Experiment.  Retrieved from http://main.zerotothree.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ter_stillface.