Looking This Way and That, and Learning to Adapt to the World

[groovedaddy]

The infants and toddlers resemble cyborgs as they waddle and crawl around the playroom with backpacks carrying wireless transmitters and cameras strapped to their heads. Each has one camera aimed at the right eye and another at the field of view, and both send video to monitors nearby. When the video feeds are combined, the result is a recording in which red cross hairs mark the target of a child’s gaze.

Scientists are using the eye-tracking setup to learn how children look at the world as they figure out how to interact with it. In the lab, children 5 months and older crawl and walk up, down and over an obstacle course of adjustable wooden slopes, cliffs, gaps and steps. And to add to the challenge, the subjects are sometimes outfitted with Teflon-coated shoes or lead-weighted vests.

It may seem like the set for a new reality television show, but there are no prizes, except perhaps for the researchers. They hope to understand what prompts one child to respond to another, how infants coordinate their gaze with their hands and feet to navigate around obstructions or handle objects, and how these very young children adapt to changes, like those brought on by slippery footwear.

The findings provided by these eye-trackers so far (the first light enough for children to wear) suggest that infants may be more capable of understanding and acting on what they see than had been thought. “Quick gazes at obstacles in front of them or at their mothers’ faces may be all they need to get the information they want. They seem to be surprisingly efficient,” said John Franchak, a doctoral candidate in developmental psychology at New York University.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/science/17gaze.html?th&emc=th

[NYC_SKP]

1. Very cool, and increasingly important to recognize in education.

Schools are finding out that we need to teach students how to adapt to survive, changes in the world are happening at a dizzying pace.

More information is created every day than we could ever hope to teach and even in good economic times, the person who can adapt is the person who will be successful (economically and in every other way).

Thus, we teach kids to teach themselves, we teach inquiry as a process, not results as facts.

Cool story, kids are amazing!

:hi:

[PittsburghKid]

2. Exciting Indeed

One of my observations, especially of teenagers, is that many of them no longer know how to interact socially at the same level we did ten years ago. The blame here is certainly on the rise of impersonal communication, namely texting and social networking (don't get me wrong, both have their advantages), and I think programs like this could help improve interaction with the older set as well. The eye movement tests could be useful down the line with identifying ASDs in younger children.

Also, despite all the new things we find each day to teach our children, don't forget there are old things that must be taught too! Last week when I got my hair cut, my barber and I were talking about how today's teens don't know how to write checks. Their parents will give them a blank check for their haircut, and many will fill it out wrong or write in print (last I checked you're supposed to write a check in cursive). It may sound trivial, and many are predicting checks to die off someday, but I get a feeling they'll be around for a good while. We're reluctant to give up forms of money we're used to--remember when they tried to get us to use $1 coins instead of bills? Checks are just the tip of the iceberg.

[txlibdem]

3. I'm afraid this research will be used to target these young children

by toy makers and tv commercials.

I hope it will be used for good and not for evil.