On any given day at the center, a visitor might find a mother cooing to her baby as a graduate student carefully documents the details of that interaction. Rochat has found that as early as age 2 months, infants are able to synchronize their responses with those of their mothers or caretakers. Everything is documented in very precise detail. Imagine a baby lying cozily between two TV monitors. We have fun.
Parents love to watch their babies being tested in our various experiments.
Early word learning and categorization in infants, toddlers and preschoolers is the focus of Assistant Professor Laura Namy's research at the center. Now we believe that many aspects of language are learned. We want to know how parental interactions can help facilitate language development. Everyday experience can have a significant influence on what children understand and how they communicate. It shows that children have real flexibility in words and symbols they are able to consider.