Project Archives

We know that all children are different and learn and behave in different ways. What we are less certain of, is how to accommodate for this vast variability when tailoring educational experiences for all. University of East London Baby Development Lab have partnered with Discover Children’s Story Centre to promote access to storytelling in the NewhamContinue reading “Newham Storytelling Project: Exploring the psychology of stories and play at Discover Children’s Story Centre”

Earth is now a majority urban planet. The urban population is growing by 80 million inhabitants every year, whilst the proportion of children growing up in rural areas is decreasing. Almost 70% of the world’s children are expected to grow up in cities by 2050 (UNICEF, 2019). In response to rapid urbanisation in recent decades,Continue reading “Nature Access for Urban Children (NAUC)”

Clinically elevated levels of anxiety represent the most prevalent child mental health condition in the world. Available evidence suggests a key role of environmental influences in the development of anxiety, with recent research suggesting that early childhood is a crucial period for identifying environmental risk factors. As yet, though, our understanding of the early lifeContinue reading “Heart 2 Heart (H2H)”

This project is in two parts. The first, led by Zeynep Suata, looks at how childrens’ reactions to emotional challenge change over time. You can read more about this project here. The second part of the project, which is led by Katie Daubney, directly compares childrens’ reactivity to different types of challenge. Specifically it looksContinue reading “Early Life Sensitivity (ELSA)”

Infants spend most of their waking time interacting with their caregivers, but the mechanisms through which these dynamic social exchanges shape the development of sub-personal processes such as attention and learning remain mysterious. Many models of early learning essentially view infants as relatively passive recipients who assimilate information selected for them by their knowledgeable socialContinue reading “Joint dynamics during infant learning (JDIL)”

Infants spend almost all of their early waking lives in the company of adults. And we know that social context influences how we pay attention, and learn. For example we know – both from formal experiments and from day-to-day life! – that when an adult attends to the same object as an infant, this increasesContinue reading “Studying the Microdynamics of Social Interaction (SMSI)”

ERC Grant number 853251 Early development starts in the womb. Then we are born; spend our first few months in our parents’ arms; and gradually transition towards childcare, nursery or school. Perhaps the most important transition that we go through during early life is the shift from co-regulatory control, shared between parent and infant, towardsContinue reading “Oscillatory Neural and Autonomic Correlates of Social Attunedness (ONACSA)”