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.
At First Sight: the prenatal origins of face recognition
Faces play a crucial role in human interaction. They are among the most captivating and salient stimuli, essential to set the foundation for social connection and information sharing. It therefore doesn’t seem so implausible that the ability to discriminate faces from...
Early Markers and Precursors of ADHD in Infancy: What do we know and where are we going?
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most prevalent neurodevelopmental condition, affecting ~8% of children in the U.S.1 With an average age of diagnosis of approximately 7 years, by the time it’s typically detected, intervention can already be a...
Investigating individual differences in social and emotional development
Have you ever wondered why people respond so differently to the same stressful situation? My research focuses on understanding this question by studying individual differences in social and emotional development. Specifically, I investigate why and how infants and...
In Memoriam: In loving memory of Lois Bloom
On January 14, the field of language acquisition lost one of its founding mothers, Lois Bloom. After graduating with a Ph.D. from Columbia University, where she studied with famed sociolinguist William Labov in the Department of Linguistics, she moved to Teacher’s...
In Memoriam: Celebrating Clancy Blair
The developmental psychology community mourns the loss of Dr. Clancy Blair, a scholar whose groundbreaking research and compassionate mentorship have left an indelible mark on our field. His prolific career began as a professor at Penn State before joining New York...
Kinship terms of address and reference among families in Singapore
This post is based on a poster with the same title that I and Suzy J. Styles presented at #ICIS2024, but given a different spin for the Infancy Baby Blog. Recently, I was describing my research on kinship terms to a friend, and how in Chinese culture, we never ever...
Peeking inside the brain prior to birth
The formation of neural circuitry is an astonishing feat. Within a matter of months, two individual cells transform into a fully functioning nervous system. By adulthood, a single cubic millimeter of human brain tissue, roughly the size of a sharpened pencil tip,...
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...