Cataloging the Natural Affordances for Infant Locomotion in the Home

• In Event: Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Topic - Perceptual, Sensory, Motor

Abstract

Before infants learn to walk, they rely on surfaces of support for upright locomotion. Infants can cruise along large stationary objects (e.g., couches and coffee tables) or engage in supported walking by holding onto a caregiver’s hand or locomotor toy. Opportunities to generate such pre-walking behaviors, however, rely on the presence and availability of surfaces of support that afford these actions. In most cases, caregivers curate infants’ spaces—they select the furniture, objects, toys, surfaces, and floorings that dress the home. As a result, caregivers also select the natural affordances of the home that enable cruising and supported walking. Here we conducted the first naturalistic, home study that documented how pre-walking infants maneuvered their homes and what aspects of the home environment they encountered and used for locomotion.

As part of a larger longitudinal study, 30 infants and their caregivers were visited at home and videotaped during everyday activities for approximately 45 minutes. Caregivers were asked to continue going about the activities of their daily routines. Here we focused on the observation occurring exactly 2 weeks before the onset of independent walking (M infant age = 11.66 months, SD = 1.32). We first identified all bouts of cruising and supported walking across the observation. Then, for each bout, we scored the affordances of the home environment along three dimensions (see Figures 1A-C): (1) the surfaces of support infants used for locomotion; (2) the textures of each surface; and (3) the textures of the flooring underfoot.

Across the dataset (preliminary sample, n = 10), infants generated 485 bouts of cruising and 117 bouts of supported walking. When they moved, infants were most likely to come into contact with household furniture (M % of bouts = 37.0%), followed by caregivers (M = 14.7%), locomotor toys (M = 14.3%), and infant furniture (M = 13.6%; Figure 1A). There was variability in surface textures (see Figure 1B). Rigid surfaces were most common (M % of bouts = 51.1%), followed by compressible materials (M = 19.6%), and caregivers (M = 13.1%). Types of flooring varied immensely between infants’ homes. However, when averaged, low pile carpet was most prevalent (M % of bouts = 35.2%), followed by wood floors (M = 19.6%), rugs (M = 12.8%), and high pile carpet (M = 12.6%; Figure 1C).

Infants’ homes are rich with natural affordances that enable creative solutions for locomotion before the onset of walking. Our results show just how vast the catalog of affordances is: numerous surfaces that allow for cruising and supported walking, a wide variety of surface textures to explore, and many types of flooring to traverse. Infants take advantage of these opportunities and maneuver their spaces utilizing many aspects of the environment. These data underscore the importance of studying infants’ skills in real world settings as it provides researchers with ecologically valid data to construct theories about infant motor development and examine the impact that caregivers have in shaping environments for locomotion.

Authors

• Owen Marty, University of Pittsburgh
  Presenting Author

• Joshua L Schneider, University of Pittsburgh
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jana M Iverson, Boston University
  Non-Presenting Author