The Baby Blog
A place to highlight new published findings, shine a spotlight on the researchers in our field, and share new tools of the trade that might help make life easier for ICIS Membership.
The Impact of Wartime on Infant Development
Introduction In 2017, 535 million children (one quarter) of the world’s children lived in countries affected by armed conflict, violence, disaster and/or chronic crisis.[1] In 2018, over 29 million babies were born in conflict-affected areas, starting their lives in...
The ripple effect of early sleep: how childhood sleep patterns shape vocabulary, academic, and mental health outcomes
By Catia M. Oliveira1, Amy Atkinson2, Michelle St Clair3, Gareth Gaskell1, Lisa Henderson1 1 University of York, 2 University of Lancaster, 3 University of Bath Humans spend a large portion of their lives asleep. Whilst this unconscious state leaves us more...
Founding Generation Symposium 2024
The ICIS Founding Generation Summer Fellowship for Undergraduates aims to develop the next generation of scholars to advance innovative research on infancy and translation of research for the public good. The program pairs promising students with research mentors from...
Introducing translational parentomics
Understanding and nurturing parenting as the place where development happens Vision: […] But before I go, I feel I must know. What am I? Wanda Maximoff: […] You are a body of wires and blood and bone […] You are my sadness and my hope. And mostly you're my love....
Time to shine the light on children’s rights
As a child development researcher, I appreciate the profound impact of childhood experiences on children’s neurodevelopmental, cognitive, social, and emotional trajectories. I, like many of my colleagues, chose this career out of a deeply rooted drive to generate...
Young Children’s Human Rights
All children have human rights. Article 1 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) establishes that, for the purposes of the Convention, “a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years”. The UN Committee on the Rights of the...
How do babies and toddlers develop inhibitory control?
Have you ever giggled at those viral videos of toddlers trying their utmost not to eat a marshmallow placed enticingly before them, having been told to wait until the grown-up returns so that they might get another? Those moments, while amusing, are actually part of a...
Voices from the Field: Community-Based Solutions for Young Children in Guatemala
Background Guatemala, a Central American nation of 18 million inhabitants, boasts rich cultural, ethnic, and geographical diversity along with abundant natural and human resources. An estimated 40.19% of the total population is under the age of 18 (6.57 million...
Towards a science of both variability and consistency in infant development
by Leher Singh, Dean D’Souza, and Michael C. Frank Infancy researchers often seek to understand the initial state of the human mind. The goal of this research has traditionally been to identify basic principles of development common to all infants. This viewpoint...
Born in a time of climate crisis: Understanding the risks and supporting the wellbeing of infants in the 21st century
Raising children during a time of climate crisis can pose many challenges for parents as well as professionals who work with them. Surveys show that most people are now aware of, and alarmed by, the impacts of climate change on the physical environment (Edelman,...