Spatial exploration and changes in infant–mother dyads around transitions in infant locomotion.

Abstract

Infants' motor skill development triggers changes in parent-infant interactions, exploration, and play behaviors, particularly during periods of locomotor transitions. We investigated how these transitions reorganized infants' and mothers' explorations of spatial layouts. Thirteen infants and their mothers were followed biweekly from the age of 6 to 17 months. This report focused on 2 periods of 6 sessions surrounding infants' hands-and-knees crawling and walking onsets. Infants' and mothers' activities were monitored during 10-min free-play sessions held in a laboratory room provided with toys and furniture. Using location coordinates for the mother and infant, we derived several measures of spatial displacement and exploration as both mother and infant moved around the room. We also observed variations in mothers' and infants' interactive behaviors and postural changes within and across sessions. Infants increased interactive behaviors, traveled further distances, and visited more places in the room over time than their mothers. This increase occurred particularly after infants became experienced hands-and-knees crawlers. The distance between infant and mother and number of postural changes also increased as infants became more mobile. This study reveals that mother-infant explorations of spatial layouts diversify and reorganize over time as infants develop new locomotor skills. (PsycINFO Database Record

Changing Opportunities for Learning in Everyday Life: Infant Body Position Over the First Year

“…Laboratory play sessions may generalize well to play time but differ pointedly with those from the current study based on whole‐day sampling. The amount of time spent sitting by 6‐month‐olds (~75%) in a laboratory play session (Thurman & Corbetta, ) was twice as much compared to whole‐day estimates from the current study (~30%, combining sitting and reclined to equate coding schemes). Similarly, estimates for time spent upright in newly walking infants range from 50 to 70% of the time in laboratory investigations (Franchak et al., ; Thurman & Corbetta, ) compared to 30% for 12‐month‐old walking infants in the current study.…”

“…The amount of time spent sitting by 6‐month‐olds (~75%) in a laboratory play session (Thurman & Corbetta, ) was twice as much compared to whole‐day estimates from the current study (~30%, combining sitting and reclined to equate coding schemes). Similarly, estimates for time spent upright in newly walking infants range from 50 to 70% of the time in laboratory investigations (Franchak et al., ; Thurman & Corbetta, ) compared to 30% for 12‐month‐old walking infants in the current study. A more comprehensive accounting of how infants spend time in different activities (Fausey et al., ) will help determine how and whether different laboratory tasks relate to everyday life.…”

“…Two semi‐naturalistic laboratory observations measured body position during infant play. A longitudinal study found that sitting was most frequent position from 6 months of age (>50% of the time) until the onset of walking, after which upright positions (standing and walking) became dominant (Thurman & Corbetta, ). Similarly, another laboratory observation found that 12‐month‐old crawling infants spent more time sitting (46%) compared to prone (25%) and upright (29%), whereas 12‐month‐old walking infants spent more time upright (70%) compared to sitting (25%) and were rarely prone (5%) (Franchak et al., ).…”

“…Although prior work finds a consistent pattern of results, generalization is limited by restricted activity contexts (Franchak et al., ; Thurman & Corbetta, ), short observation times (Franchak et al., ; Karasik et al., ; Thurman & Corbetta, ), reliance on retrospective reports (Hnatiuk et al., ; Majnemer & Barr, ), and narrow age ranges (Bril & Sabatier, ; Franchak et al., ; Hnatiuk et al., ; Karasik et al., ; Majnemer & Barr, ). Moreover, inconsistent coding schemes used across investigations that tested infants of different ages and in different settings preclude direct comparisons.…”

It's the journey, not the destination: Locomotor exploration in infants

“…In typical lab‐based, free‐play paradigms, infants play with a caregiver (Adolph et al., ; Cole et al., ; Hoch et al., ; Thurman & Corbetta, ). However, in real‐world settings, caregivers are often unavailable for play (Karasik et al., 2014; Tamis‐LeMonda, Kuchirko, Luo, Escobar, & Bornstein, ).…”