News
Wheels of change
28 Feb 2009
The most common and affordable buggies in the UK for children aged from six months face away from the pusher. Dr. Suzanne Zeedyk, a Developmental Psychologist at Dundee University, questions our cultural assumption that small children benefit most from looking out at the world around them as, research repeatedly shows that in order for babies to make effective use of that experience of the wider world, they need parents to help mediate and make sense of it for them.
Dr. Zeedyk carried out two studies for the campaign. The first was an observation of 2,722 parent-infant pairs across the UK. Away-facing buggies were associated with a reduction in speaking for both parents (half) and infant (a third) - and, unexpectedly, infants in towards facing buggies were twice as likely to be sleeping.
Observers were shocked by how little communication was going on between parents and babies. One saw that: "Lots of people came past with their dogs, and at least half were talking to them, but not the children! And so many parents on mobiles!" Another said: "Why don't people talk to their children more? Missed opportunities for a bit of fun! I noticed a number of occasions where the child was babbling to itself, playing with pram toys, or babbling to a doll, but because the buggy was facing away, the parent was unable to join in with or encourage this interaction."
As the pattern of parent talking observed may have reflected parent personality rather than buggy orientation, Dr. Zeedyk undertook a second pilot experimental study of 20 babies. While half a mile was spent in an away-facing buggy, the other half-mile was spent in a toward-facing buggy, with 10 starting in one condition and 10 in the other.
The findings suggest that not only does buggy orientation influence the amount of parental talking to the child, but that the talking with toward-facing buggies is more varied and interesting. Given that the theory of away-facing buggies is to enable the child to see the world, it is interesting that when mothers did point things out to infants it appeared to be more likely to occur in a toward-facing buggy. And, although there was no significant difference in infant speech, both mothers and babies had more laughter when the buggy was toward-facing. Only one baby ever laughed in the away-facing journey, while 10 did so in the toward-facing one.
The pilot study also made tentative suggestions about infant stress levels being lower in toward-facing buggies, and Dr. Zeedyk says that life in a buggy "is more isolated than many adults realise, and may be more emotionally impoverished than is good for children's development". Interestingly, "while mothers experienced the two orientations differently, they did not think their infants did (at least in terms of comfort or stress)".
Comments from mothers involved add weight to the findings that changing orientation can be powerful. "It was interesting with her facing towards me. Because I was talking to her all the time, because she was looking at me, and so you react with her. Whereas, when she is facing away, yes I talk, but not quite as much. Because, you know you cannot see her facial movements and you know she is not looking at you to get feedback...I did not expect that. I thought if she was in one like this (toward-facing), she would spend most of her time craning out."
Dr. Zeedyk hopes manufacturers will now work to make toward-facing buggies more affordable and acceptable, and that she can use the results of the pilot study to conduct larger-scale research.
You can view the full report by going to Buggy_Research (need link here).
(Speech & Language Therapy in Practice, Spring 2009)
