Michelle Stephens
PARENTS of young babies are being asked to take part in a research study to assess how their personality influences your child’s early sensory development.
Ellie Smith, a PhD Student from Lancaster University, is looking into the effect parents’ personalities have on their infants’ early development and is running a large-scale study out of Lancaster University’s Babylab.
She is now looking for more parents of babies aged between five and a half and six and a half months to take part in the study which is being run at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.
Ellie said: “This research involves three short activities for you and your baby, where we will record their electrical brain behaviour using a clever hat.
“This hat is called EEG and has a collection of sensors that sit on your baby’s head so I can see what is going on in their brain during the activities! It is non invasive, very comfortable for them and is perfectly safe.
“Using EEG is an amazing tool for learning how very young infants’ brains work and how much they actually pick-up on in their environment.
“We often don’t think about how much our new born infants are learning and picking up in the first few months. But this can be key to their development and this is what I hope to discover.”
Michelle Stephens, Research & Development Manager at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are very pleased to be able to work with Ellie and the Babylab team at Lancaster University to offer this new study at the Trust.
“This is the second time we have collaborated with Lancaster University’s Babylab and it is fascinating to see how babies develop and their abilities through these ground breaking studies. We wish Ellie lots of success with her study.”
The Lancaster University Babylab is one of the largest groups worldwide working on early development.
Most of their studies involve children between four months and four years of age but they are also interested in learning more about babies’ abilities before birth.
If you are interested in taking part please contact Ellie Smith on e.smith3@lancaster.ac.uk or Dr Megan Thomas on dr.thomas@bfwh.nhs.uk
- The Babylab is always looking to recruit interested families. If you are pregnant or the parent of a baby or toddler you can register your interest online: http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/babylab/get-involved/.