Characterizing Early Environments Using Parent–Child Proximity

• In Event: Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Topic - Technology, Media & Child Development

Abstract

The types of interactions that we believe to be most supportive of positive child development (e.g., joint attention, physical touch) take place in moments of close contact with others, and in the earliest years of life a child’s caregivers are the primary partners in these important interactions. However, we know little about the patterns of real-life interactions between children and their caregivers. This project introduces a novel method for capturing patterns of caregiver–child proximity as they unfold naturally, filling the need for ecologically-valid approaches to our understanding of children’s early experiences. We have developed a wearable, infrastructure-free device (TotTag), which utilizes both ultra-wideband and Bluetooth Low Energy radios to dynamically and unobtrusively measure real-time physical proximity between devices wearers.
The present study examines the TotTag validity and reliability with data collected over two days from a family of four (30-month-old son, 61-month-old daughter, 37-year-old father, 37-year-old mother), including information about their patterns of interaction as well as how the children’s experiences might differ depending on proximity to their caregivers. The family was provided with TotTags for each family member as well as language recording devices (LENA Digital Language Processors) for each child. Data collection occurred over two consecutive weekend days, during which the family was instructed to turn each family member’s devices on and begin wearing and recording as soon as they woke up in the morning and to record continuously until the children were put to bed. We explored patterns of proximity across the day within each parent–child dyad and whether measurements corresponding to close proximity between child and caregiver would indicate periods in which increased opportunity for developmentally critical interactions occur (i.e., greater adult language exposure).
Descriptive analysis of the TotTag data reveal wide variability in caregiver–child proximity over the course of the recordings. On average, a small proportion of the day was spent within touching distance of either parent (Table 1). However, the plots of the continuous data suggest that caregiver–child dyads spent a large portion of each day within ten ft or so of each other (Fig. 1). Further, in comparing the TotTag proximity data to the LENA measures of the language environment, we present evidence that closer proximity is indicative of the types of interactions shown to be important for developmental outcomes – in this case, exposure to adult speech and engagement in conversational turns. Specifically, the proportion of time at least one parent was within touching distance was also significantly positively correlated with the number of conversational turns, r(574)=.27, p<.001, 95% CI [0.19, 0.34].
The TotTag is a novel tool for the ecologically-valid assessment of caregiver–child proximity. Observing patterns of caregiver–child proximity as they unfold in real time and in a family’s natural context (i.e., outside of a laboratory setting) provides a novel perspective on the early caregiving environment, filling an important gap in our understanding of children’s early experiences.

Authors

• Virginia Charlotte Salo, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD/NIH)
  Presenting Author

• Pat Pannuto, University of California, San Diego
  Non-Presenting Author

• Will Hedgecock, Vanderbilt University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Andreas Biri, ETH Zurich
  Non-Presenting Author

• David Russo, Vanderbilt University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Hannah Piersiak, Vanderbilt University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kathryn Humphreys, Vanderbilt University
  Non-Presenting Author