These studies take place at our lab at the University of Waterloo, where you will have free parking and be welcomed into the lab by a researcher. Your child will participate in a game or activity, or watch a short video, all of which are designed to be engaging for children. Parents and children are together for the full study session, which tends to be around 30 minutes.
In one of our in-lab studies, we are asking whether toddlers interpret words different depending on whether they hear them from a child or an adult. Toddlers see a video in which either a child or adult is talking about various objects. We measure how long toddlers look at the objects when they hear the child or adult voice describing them. Studies like this tell us how well toddlers understand the speech of other children, and whether they know anything specific about the way other children talk!
Finding it hard to imagine what a lab visit is like? Click the link below to see a step-by-step of how we run our in-lab studies!