Infant Study

Everyone,

Today Butterfly and I went to the University of Maryland to participate in an infant study they were doing. The study is run by grad students in the psychology department. They have set up the waiting room with toys, games, diapers, and all sorts of kid friendly stuff. The girls were fun and engaging. I wanted to hire them as my babysitter.

After Butterfly and I played a little bit in the waiting room, we went into a small back room where they had a puppet stage set up. One of the girls was on the 'stage' and they had a curtain and a camera set up. I won't say specifically what were studying (they asked that I not) but they were very good. They wanted her to look at an object and when she looked away for 2 seconds, they put the curtain back up. My baby has a super long attention span. For an 18 month old. It is short at home, but play this game with her and she will stare for minutes at a time. The girls even commented on how long her attention span is. I got bored with the test. She didn't.

It was a really cool experience. I think they will send me the results of the study when they are finished with it. They gave Butterfly a toy to take home, and they will call me if they start a new study. I want to do it again. We both had some fun. I got to learn a few things about baby psychology (they are very visual learners at this age, and will touch everything to connect it in their brains...I never thought about that) and she got to play with a bunch of really nice girls that were focused on them.

Of course, I ended up getting on 495 going the wrong way. I went 10 miles before I realized it, and had to turn around. Of course, it was Friday afternoon rush hour traffic. 10 miles one way was no big deal. 10 miles on the outer loop meant 45 minutes. So I spent 2 hours in the car trying to get home. It wiped me out. But it was worth it.

Next time I'll know to go north instead of south. No trips to Richmond for me.

Safire