Research Areas
- Infant-caregiver interactions
- Language development
- Motor development
- Autism
- Descriptions of natural behavior
In the Bama Baby Lab, we study infant learning across the first three years of life.
Is infants’ simultaneous learning across domains purely coincidence, or are the domains related? Using laboratory experiments and natural observations of infants at home, our research documents how: (1) Infants actively construct their own learning environments; (2) New skills in one domain—like learning to point, walk, or say “yes” and “no”—can ripple across other domains of infant learning; (3) Delays or atypicality in one domain can have far-reaching effects on infants’ other emerging skills. We study variability in development process in neurotypical infants, autistic infants, and infants with language delay.
Research:
- Word learning
- Motor-language cascades
- Natural observations
- Developmental process in autism
- Sibling interactions
- Head-mounted eye-tracking
Keywords: Experimental and naturalistic observations of infant development; autism and neurodevelopmental disorders; language development, including words, gestures, and pre-linguistic vocalizations; motor skill acquisitions and behaviors; dyadic interactions between infants and their caregivers
