Visuomotor Learning Opportunities are Nested Within Infants’ Everyday Activities

• In Event: The Ecology of Infant Motor Development: Diversity and Dynamics

Abstract

An infant’s waking day contains rich experiences across diverse activities that provide opportunities for learning in multiple domains. However, collecting data to represent these everyday learning opportunities is a methodological challenge. Lab-based observations, and often even laborious in-home recordings, do not sample the full range of everyday activities and so may mischaracterize infants’ learning opportunities (Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2017). One technique to address these sampling challenges is Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA). EMA repeatedly samples the at-the-moment experience of participants, achieving high-density data with maximized ecological validity and minimized disruption to participants’ day-to-day life (Franchak, 2020). Here, we used EMA to understand the extent to which everyday activities constrain infants’ opportunities for manual and locomotor exploration.

Using text messages containing a brief survey, we prompted parents of 10-13 month-olds to self-report their infant’s activity, whether their infant was holding an object, and their infant’s locomotion at the moment they received the text message. Each parent received 40 text messages distributed across the waking hours of four days when they knew they would be at home with their infant.

Figure 1 shows the striking prevalence of play (.503) and feeding (.231) in infants’ everyday lives. When not playing or feeding, infants spent their remaining time in errands/transportation (.115), media viewing (.028), nap/bedtime routines (.027), bathing/dressing (.021), reading (.015), and fussing/crying (.012). Because the bulk of infants’ everyday learning opportunities arose from playing and feeding, we focused the remaining analyses on these activities together with the others combined.

Figure 2a shows that infants spent more time holding objects in the especially prevalent activities – .485 while playing, .506 while feeding – compared to other activities (.355). Figure 2b shows that infants were unrestrained during the majority of play (.738), playing while either locomoting (.436) or stationary (.302). In contrast, infants were mostly restrained either by caregivers or by infant furniture during feeding (.641) and during other activities (.612).

When different activities present different learning opportunities, infants’ cumulative learning depends on both the nature and prevalence of each activity. Dense EMA sampling revealed that playing might be an especially potent engine of opportunity for manual and locomotor exploration. Playing may also be an important source of individual differences in developmental cascades. Though prevalent overall, time spent playing varied considerably across individuals (.266 to .75 of waking time). Time spent playing may impact an individual’s ability to engage, explore, and continue learning from their environment. Ongoing longitudinal sampling as infants make the transition from crawling to walking will reveal potential shifts in activity prevalence as well as the contributions of infants’ own developing motor abilities in enriching and shaping their own exploration. Future analyses will identify the extent to which these varying opportunities for manual and locomotor exploration shape later emerging skills like receptive and productive vocabulary.

Authors

• Kellan Kadooka, University of California - Riverside
  Presenting Author

• Madelyn Caufield, University of California-Riverside
  Non-Presenting Author

• Caitlin Fausey, University of Oregon
  Non-Presenting Author

• John M Franchak, University of California - Riverside
  Non-Presenting Author