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'Sticky Mittens' Give Babies A Head Start
Tammy Tieu writes "Duke University psychologists have discovered that fitting infants with Velcro-covered 'sticky mittens' gives them a developmental jump start in learning to explore objects. The researchers placed the mittens on infants too young to actually grasp objects, but the mittens allowed the infants to snag Velcro-fitted toys merely by swiping at them. In comparisons with infants who hadn't used the mittens, found the psychologists, those who had used the mitten subsequently showed more sophisticated abilities to explore objects."
You have to have your mittens on to catch the link.
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"There could have been a cognitive difference, in that the babies with the mittens received more experience in being an actor on the world and being able to produce observable consequences that created the differences," she said. "Or, it could have been that just the extra attention the mitten-using babies received from the parents -- perhaps motivating them to pay attention to objects or systematically bringing the babies' attention to objects."
This was the first thing that popped into my mind when I read the brief. In fact, I would have said a better method would have been to use three groups to control for parental interaction.
- Group One: This group would have the sticky mittens and the 10-minute per day regimine.
- Group Two: This group would have similar toys and similar instructions to parents for interaction, but without the mittens.
- Group Three: This group would have neither of the above. Purely control.
I think the results for such a study would be much more externally valid. This study would have really benefitted from controlling for the variable of parental interaction.You can't get a blue screen on a black and white monitor.
They wound up with their hands stuck together for most of childhood. Did wonders for my peace of mind.
And when does evolution kick in and allow these youngsters the ability to "grow" velcro?
They need to learn what they HAVE. I can just imagine 25,000 people walking around the world with Velcro on their hands because of their inability to use their REAL digits!
sheesh.
While it's certainly an interesting concept, it would have just made my daughter pissed off. She hated having anything on her hands, even when she was to young for them to be of any use.
That may have changed if the mittens allowed her to do something she would otherwise be able to, as is the case here, but I wouldn't bet on it.
At 2.5 years she doesn't seem to have any difficulty exploring the world, though (except maybe the height thing).
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...of kids too lazy to even close their hands :-)
no sig.
So you're saying that you can bypass learning to grip and get to learning to manipulat objects...but learning to grip is kind of important too, you know?
May we never see th
Just remember to take them off before the kids hit puberty and discover the allure of pornography. Ouch.
Seriously, I hope the scientists at least let the babies climb on the walls and ceiling.
Yes, that's two jokes for the price of one, folks. I do it cuz I love ya. Move along.
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[the researchers] plan further studies to explore the causes of the enhanced abilities of the mitten-fitted babies.
Sounds like an opener for a new movie: "X-Babies"
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Hate to say this, but we have a 4-month old, and all he does is hang onto the breast and eat. Oh, and sleep. Tools are WAY outside his grasp, no pun intended. Swatting at things is way outside his grasp. How are these kids doing this at that age?
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to our good friends, the Vulcans
Yes, my thoughts exactly. In last week's Enterprise episode, when T'Pol's great-grandmum sells a sample of Velcro to a patent attorney, the buyer refers to it as a product that will revolutionize the world. Since prior to this I would not have considered Velcro to have "revolutionized the world" the comment must have been referring to this research. Once all human babies are started on this regimen, we will achieve the understanding of physics necessary to one day build a warp drive.
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Giving an infant velcro gloves is the equivalent of handing a first-grader a calculator before a math quiz. Sure, they may finish faster and more accurately, but they do so by taking a developmental shortcut.
Which is why you let a kid play with a calculator (or the gloves) for a while, but not all the time.
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They should try putting velcro socks on the little tikes. Turn them into little mokeys, grabbing things with their feet.
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