My current
research interests are primarily in infants'
early development of the self, particularly
the development of their understanding that
they can affect their social and physical
world through their own actions and,
therefore, they are not helpless. Such
a sense of self agency is the beginning
point of functioning as a social being and influences future
personal constructs of how the world works. My
research program spans three specific areas. First, I
am interested in exploring how infants use the contingency
present in normal social interactions with others and in
play with objects to develop their sense of self agency,
i.e., that they are effective agents in the world and can
act on the social and physical environment with predictable
outcomes. This ability to process contingency happens
within the first six months of life, possibly as early as
two months of age. Second, I am interested in
examining how infants make use of others' interactions with
them to learn about the complexities of language and play,
both of which are symbolic systems that allow for expansions
in communication and memory during the first two years of
life. Third, I am interested in the development of
joint attention, the ability to attend to both a social
partner and an object at the same time. It is a
hallmark in infant development because it indicates the
emergence of intersubjectivity with
the realization that self reality can be shared with others.
Beginning around six months of age infants may switch their
gaze between their adult partner and an object, but
sustained joint attention with active acknowledgement of the
other's role in play is not achieved until the end of the
first year of life.
In addition, I am exploring the benefits of early
skin-to-skin contact between mothers and infants. There is
about 30 years of research documenting the benefits of such
contact for babies. Yet early mother-infant skin-to-skin
contact also may be beneficial to mothers by reducing their
stress and facilitating the mother-infant relationship. The
latter would enhance infants’ social and cognitive
development.
For several years I
studied the development of children born blind. As a
result of the many things these children taught me, I am
also interested in studying how vision directs the
development of perspective taking and spatial abilities in
children from infancy through middle childhood. |