Infant Studies: 40 years of research — Transcript

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1. 0:00we are standing on the shoulders of
2. 0:03giants of these pioneers who paved the
3. 0:07way he's fabulous methods and really
4. 0:10opened our eyes to how to look at
5. 0:12behavior look at babies you know I guess
6. 0:15for me is the field of infancy what we
7. 0:17did know was almost everything at the
8. 0:22very beginning we didn't know if infants
9. 0:24could see if they could hear do they
10. 0:27process information what kinds of social
11. 0:29relationships are they were having and
12. 0:32and so on well originally it was an idea
13. 0:36of Nancy Bailey and Jerry Kagan to bring
14. 0:39together the couple handfuls of
15. 0:42researchers who were just starting to
16. 0:44study babies it was all the unwritten
17. 0:47rules and we just sat around and shared
18. 0:49our experiences about trying to do this
19. 0:51work for a long time
20. 0:53infancy was viewed as if not a narrow
21. 0:57field one that didn't require more than
22. 1:02a single handbook chapter to cover what
23. 1:05was going on 40 years ago people did not
24. 1:09know that infants learn as rapidly as
25. 1:12they do or that they have as much
26. 1:15organized knowledge about people and
27. 1:17things in the world we have now
28. 1:18discovered as the infants have I would
29. 1:20say that April 1998 meeting was a very
30. 1:25critical turning point it was really
31. 1:27just giving control over a journal that
32. 1:31represents the society Esther came up
33. 1:34with the name for the journal she said
34. 1:36how about infancy and I said that sounds
35. 1:40good let's name the journal infantry I
36. 1:43think I see is has provided an
37. 1:45international forum promoting
38. 1:47non-traditional approaches to infancy
39. 1:49through their meetings and through their
40. 1:51journals provides a forum by which these
41. 1:53different approaches can be presented
42. 1:55interpreted and incorporated into the
43. 1:58larger body of the field I think one
44. 2:00really really interesting discovery is
45. 2:02what we know about babies face
46. 2:04processing in particular how they view
47. 2:06people who are the same or other races
48. 2:08them and they can discriminate these
49. 2:10individuals from
50. 2:11it's a very important sort of tool for
51. 2:14social cognition and the emergence of
52. 2:15more sophisticated kinds of thinking
53. 2:17like for example stereotype formation
54. 2:20children know their mother's voice and
55. 2:22their father's voice in utero and that
56. 2:25they can differentiate different kinds
57. 2:27of language just absolutely amazing how
58. 2:31the fetus is already able to process
59. 2:34language and we've learned that over the
60. 2:37last 40 years a lot more than I
61. 2:39originally thought about how the babies
62. 2:42learn the sound system of the language
63. 2:44based on English research is really
64. 2:47unique to babies start with you know
65. 2:50sensitivity to almost all languages all
66. 2:52the sounds and then you start losing
67. 2:54them if you don't use them so I'm
68. 2:56located in the Netherlands so daycare is
69. 2:59more like a function for parents and not
70. 3:01so much for their children so that the
71. 3:04children are array for today but I think
72. 3:06we more and more going to realize that
73. 3:09actually it's very important what's
74. 3:11happening here what kind of interactions
75. 3:13and experiences children have one of the
76. 3:16things that we've learned over the years
77. 3:18is that one needs the change of nursery
78. 3:21and that has to happen those units are
79. 3:23really very different today so now
80. 3:25because of research again people are
81. 3:28using kangaroo care in the NICU they're
82. 3:30using snuggling they're using cuddling
83. 3:33they're holding the baby instead of
84. 3:35leaving the baby alone in a machine the
85. 3:37discovery that infants are cognitively
86. 3:40complex and of itself has shifted
87. 3:41because we understand now that infants
88. 3:43have memory they have recognition skills
89. 3:45and it gives us some evidence that
90. 3:48cognition might actually be innate that
91. 3:50there's levels of cognitive development
92. 3:52that were born with since an infant
93. 3:54shows using these tactics that we've
94. 3:56developed cognitive mechanisms basically
95. 3:59from birth they think that one of the
96. 4:01things that we've really come to realize
97. 4:02as a field is the whole child and that
98. 4:05people are paying attention to what's
99. 4:07happening in other domains then
100. 4:09very specialized little area many
101. 4:11aspects of the child are developing all
102. 4:12at once and many factors are influencing
103. 4:15what the child is doing an organization
104. 4:17like I see is who's really focused on
105. 4:20very young children's development is
106. 4:22part of the reason we have a lot of this
107. 4:24newer understanding of what all children
108. 4:28are processes played a really central
109. 4:42role in the development of the field we
110. 4:45know that really experiences matter but
111. 4:48we're not sure what it is about early
112. 4:51experiences that happens in a program
113. 4:53setting in a classroom that really
114. 4:55matters hopefully the direction we're
115. 4:57moving is is to try to understand what
116. 4:59are the specific aspects and pieces of
117. 5:01support early on that can be provided
118. 5:04through a policy or a program that can
119. 5:07really help set kids on a positive
120. 5:09trajectory you know major advancements
121. 5:11is going to be how the brain develops in
122. 5:14the context of the maternal pre
123. 5:16pregnancy environment factors that are
124. 5:18you wouldn't necessarily think are
125. 5:19specific to brain development are really
126. 5:21important like how the immune system is
127. 5:23reacting in mom how the microbiome in
128. 5:26the child or in mom is interacting with
129. 5:29brain phenomena and I think that the
130. 5:31direction we're going is that in the
131. 5:32future babies will have more more
132. 5:34wearable devices totally portable motion
133. 5:38tracking devices brain imaging devices
134. 5:40and so on and that all these behavioral
135. 5:42streams can be put together so that we
136. 5:45can really understand the whole child
137. 5:47rather than it's like sort of child who
138. 5:49we've artificially split up into
139. 5:51different
140. 5:52different tell me we are learning more
141. 5:55and more about it 58 Europe development
142. 5:57and it's all to the good it's all to the
143. 5:59betterment of the science of infant
144. 6:01behavior and development as well as to
145. 6:04the practice of correction of deficits
146. 6:08that babies may be born with or maybe
147. 6:11acquire in the course of their early
148. 6:13development I think the future of
149. 6:15research and infancy is going to be
150. 6:16putting the parent at the center of most
151. 6:18interventions and working on adult
152. 6:19development together with their children
153. 6:21I hope that we will have a much better
154. 6:24sense of what works with whom when and
155. 6:26how so that we can really walk alongside
156. 6:30parents and really support them in even
157. 6:33a more individualized way how do we take
158. 6:37all of these wonderful bits of knowledge
159. 6:40and advice we have to get people
160. 6:44actually change the behavior
161. 6:46well most parents today know that it's a
162. 6:49little healthier for a baby to sleep on
163. 6:51its back not sleep on its tummy back to
164. 6:54sleep campaign that campaign came out of
165. 6:57I think we've done a tremendous service
166. 7:00to the field not just to the field to
167. 7:02the world by helping people understand
168. 7:05what babies can do as a younger
169. 7:07scientist it was always a very
170. 7:09supportive environment the more senior
171. 7:10faculty and researchers were always very
172. 7:12supportive of junior faculty and
173. 7:14graduate students and as now more of a
174. 7:17touring member of the society I knew
175. 7:19I'll see that same sort of relationship
176. 7:20played out so I just think has always
177. 7:22been a wonderfully supportive
178. 7:23environment for all of us who study
179. 7:24babies in their worlds impressive to me
180. 7:27at the conference people were trying to
181. 7:29help each other here's to new methods
182. 7:31here's this how can we how can we share
183. 7:33how can we improve the whole field which
184. 7:36is not not this kind of competitive
185. 7:38thing that you would think would be
186. 7:39there a bit like oh you worked in the
187. 7:41same area I do
188. 7:42here's what I found helps we always went
189. 7:45to the conference's or some of my best
190. 7:47memories can be presented posters at
191. 7:49those meetings of our research and
192. 7:51eventually we were presenting in
193. 7:54symposia we always had to practice
194. 7:57practice practice before we gave our
195. 7:59presentations very very fun memories
196. 8:02he's been a number of amazing pioneers
197. 8:04who have come out of this organization
198. 8:06Carolyn Rover Kolya when she first
199. 8:08started people thought that at that time
200. 8:10babies would remember for about five
201. 8:12seconds that they were pretty much like
202. 8:13goldfish but her research has
203. 8:15demonstrated now that actually infants
204. 8:17have quite amazing memory system we're
205. 8:19not just learning about infants per se
206. 8:21but about general human procedures like
207. 8:24how memory works this year marks the
208. 8:27loss of one of our Giants berry
209. 8:30Brazelton who used to frequent the ICA's
210. 8:33meetings a pediatrician who raised our
211. 8:36awareness about the activity states of
212. 8:38newborns
213. 8:39he was the first to propose that even
214. 8:41when babies are nursing they are having
215. 8:43a kind of conversation with their
216. 8:45mothers he gave us the neonatal
217. 8:47behavioral assessment scale that is
218. 8:50widely used to track a baby's
219. 8:51development and he taught us that babies
220. 8:54come to us with nine months experience
221. 8:56and they actively respond to and control
222. 8:59the environments they inhabit an author
223. 9:01a TV personality a mentor and a
224. 9:05world-class pediatrician we honor dr.
225. 9:07Brazelton who passed away in March just
226. 9:11before his hundredth birthday he was a
227. 9:14gift to our field as we celebrate
228. 9:16Barry's work the contributions of Hondas
229. 9:19Papa Chak Jackie Gibson and many others
230. 9:22we are grateful and look forward to the
231. 9:24next 40 years of discoveries and infant
232. 9:27development I think the most fundamental
233. 9:30question is still to be answered we've
234. 9:32learned a lot about what infants know
235. 9:34we've learned much less about how
236. 9:36infants know what I think we can hope to
237. 9:39achieve over the next 40 years is a
238. 9:41deeper computational understanding of
239. 9:43how infant Minds work for me perhaps the
240. 9:47biggest puzzle to be unlocked is the
241. 9:51nature of environment if you were to
242. 9:54contrast what we know about the child
243. 9:57and what we know about the environment
244. 10:00it would be shocking we have no idea
245. 10:03that playing with blocks was going to be
246. 10:06that important to growing spatial and
247. 10:09mathematical skills who knew that that
248. 10:11could be at the root of stem science
249. 10:13technology engineering and math yes and
250. 10:16I think that we're really
251. 10:17your parents understand that now and
252. 10:19it's not just about handing a kid a
253. 10:21tablet because your kid isn't going to
254. 10:23learn the same thing from the tablet
255. 10:25that they're gonna learn from hands-on
256. 10:26manipulation that's really key and
257. 10:29that's the message that we as scientists
258. 10:31are trying to help get out to the public
259. 10:33I think the future is going to be so
260. 10:35darn exciting