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Buggy research
published
New research published today by Talk To Your Baby shows that
interactions between parents and infants are significantly increased
with face-to-face buggies.
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| TTYB News |
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Buggy research
published
New research published today
shows that interactions between parents and infants are
significantly increased with face-to-face buggies. Dr Suzanne
Zeedyk, University of Dundee, says life is emotionally impoverished
for too many babies in buggies that face away from their
pusher. Her observational and empirical study looked at the
psychological effects of buggies - the first time this has been
researched. Her findings include:
• 62% of all
children observed were travelling in away-facing buggies, with the
rate even higher, at 86%, between the ages of one and two
years
• babies' heart rates were higher in
away-facing buggies, suggesting infants are having to cope with a
more stressful situation than babies facing the
pusher
• children in buggies facing away from the pusher are
significantly less likely to talk, laugh, and interact with their
parents than those facing the pusher. If parents don't talk,
babies remain silent.
Dr Zeedyk says, "Neuroscience has
helped us to learn how important social interaction during the early
years is for children's brain development. If babies are
spending significant amounts of time in a baby buggy that undermines
their ability to communicate easily with their parent, at an age
when the brain is developing more than it will ever again in life,
then this has to impact negatively on their
development."
TTYB calls on manufacturers and
retailers to create and make available more affordable two-way
facing buggies. Parents with such models should utilise the
face-to-face option as standard, so that young children and their
carers can talk and listen to each other as they are out and about.
Parents also need to be aware of the importance of spending time
talking together, and the valuable opportunities that face-to-face
buggies can provide. Read
the research in full
The research was funded by Sutton
Trust. Many thanks to all colleagues who kindly undertook the
observation work. |
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ITV
Tonight programme on early language
The buggy
research also features in ITV1's current affairs Tonight programme,
Lost For Words, which airs on Monday 24 November at 8pm. It
investigates why in some parts of the UK nearly 50 per cent of
children arrive at primary school unable to string a sentence
together or follow simple instructions such as, "Touch your tummy
and your nose". Producer Angie Mason has interviewed Betty
Hart (on the Hart & Risley research), speech and language
therapists and families taking part in language projects in Stoke on
Trent and Middlesbrough. |
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Buggy
survey and background
Over 1,000 people responded to
TTYB's online survey on buggy use in 2005, with over 90% of
respondents saying they would choose a pusher-facing buggy if the
cost were the same, and 88% saying they would talk more to their
children. Read
about the survey and background |
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Other buggy
news
Last week a Walkie Talkie buggy campaign was
launched in Orkney, where health visitor Susan Atkinson has worked
with the local store to highlight to parents the benefits
face-to-face buggies bring to their babies.
Firbank Children's Centre in
Lancaster has also launched a pusher-facing buggy project, having
purchased four pusher-facing prams (including one twin) to be
used at the centre and by their full-day care provider, 'Rising
Stars'. The prams all have a large swing tag encouraging
people to "Ask about our pusher facing prams", with practitioners on
their walks around the local areas briefed to pass on the benefits
of using pusher-facing prams to interested
parents.
Have you got a similar story to
tell us? Please get in touch. |
Liz
Attenborough
Talk To Your Baby
liz.attenborough@literacytrust.org.uk
www.talktoyourbaby.org.uk
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