What is the difference between 'good' and 'bad' stress? Understanding possible effects of socio-economic status on learning.
Lead Research Organisation:
University of East London
Department Name: Psychology
Abstract
Stress energizes learning. The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), which is the pattern of nerves running through the body that enacts the body's stress response, acts to maintain a state of anticipatory readiness - one in which we are alert and ready to receive new information. Information presented during this alert state is subsequently better retained.
For my recent research, hosted at the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, I have been leading a small research unit to study stress and learning in typical, middle-class young children. Our research has focused on exploring these 'good' aspects of stress. We have shown, for the first time, that children who show a larger spontaneous response to an experimentally presented stressor are also better at learning pictures of other children's faces. Using new, advanced analytical techniques based on time-series analyses, we have also shown that children who show more spontaneous, sudden fluctuations in stress levels show better learning.
However, there is also a down-side to stress. This is shown most markedly in individuals from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds. A number of recent studies have concluded that the associations widely observed between low SES and poor academic performance may be entirely attributable to the fact that individuals from low SES backgrounds tend to experience more frequent, and intense, stressful early life events. Although the exact mechanisms are unknown, it is thought that increased stress during early life associates with a poorer ability to concentrate, and therefore to learn.
So how to reconcile these 'good' and 'bad' aspects of stress during early development? Understanding this question is vital - both for understanding the mechanisms that disrupt early learning in high-risk individuals, and for developing new techniques to improve learning across all children. Yet remarkably little previous research has recorded whether different individuals are exposed to different levels of external, environmental noise during early development - nor investigated how these associate with differences in their internal stress reactivity. Under this Fellowship, I would use recently developed technologies to do this for the first time.
To address these questions, I shall take a cohort of infants from mixed socio-economic status backgrounds, recruited at birth in East London, and quantitatively track how attention, learning, ANS activity and external environmental stressors vary during early life. Using cutting-edge new technologies I shall examine whether children differ in the total amount of environmental noise to which they are exposed - and whether relationships can be found between how much noise and individual is exposed to, and how well they perform on attention and learning.
To mentor me on this project I have been fortunate to secure the support of three leading international scientists. Professor Cynthia Fu, based at the University of East London, will assist me in setting up the recruitment of children from mixed SES backgrounds. Professor John Duncan, in Cambridge, is an internationally renowned expert on attention, and will advise me on the cognitive and analytical aspects of the project. Professor Mark Johnson, at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, is an expert on understanding early typical and atypical development, including the early development of Autism and Attention Deficit Disorder, and will advise me on potential links to clinical populations. The proposal also includes a visit to the lab of Dr Ronny Geva, in Israel, to learn new techniques for measuring early stress from experts in her lab.
For my recent research, hosted at the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, I have been leading a small research unit to study stress and learning in typical, middle-class young children. Our research has focused on exploring these 'good' aspects of stress. We have shown, for the first time, that children who show a larger spontaneous response to an experimentally presented stressor are also better at learning pictures of other children's faces. Using new, advanced analytical techniques based on time-series analyses, we have also shown that children who show more spontaneous, sudden fluctuations in stress levels show better learning.
However, there is also a down-side to stress. This is shown most markedly in individuals from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds. A number of recent studies have concluded that the associations widely observed between low SES and poor academic performance may be entirely attributable to the fact that individuals from low SES backgrounds tend to experience more frequent, and intense, stressful early life events. Although the exact mechanisms are unknown, it is thought that increased stress during early life associates with a poorer ability to concentrate, and therefore to learn.
So how to reconcile these 'good' and 'bad' aspects of stress during early development? Understanding this question is vital - both for understanding the mechanisms that disrupt early learning in high-risk individuals, and for developing new techniques to improve learning across all children. Yet remarkably little previous research has recorded whether different individuals are exposed to different levels of external, environmental noise during early development - nor investigated how these associate with differences in their internal stress reactivity. Under this Fellowship, I would use recently developed technologies to do this for the first time.
To address these questions, I shall take a cohort of infants from mixed socio-economic status backgrounds, recruited at birth in East London, and quantitatively track how attention, learning, ANS activity and external environmental stressors vary during early life. Using cutting-edge new technologies I shall examine whether children differ in the total amount of environmental noise to which they are exposed - and whether relationships can be found between how much noise and individual is exposed to, and how well they perform on attention and learning.
To mentor me on this project I have been fortunate to secure the support of three leading international scientists. Professor Cynthia Fu, based at the University of East London, will assist me in setting up the recruitment of children from mixed SES backgrounds. Professor John Duncan, in Cambridge, is an internationally renowned expert on attention, and will advise me on the cognitive and analytical aspects of the project. Professor Mark Johnson, at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, is an expert on understanding early typical and atypical development, including the early development of Autism and Attention Deficit Disorder, and will advise me on potential links to clinical populations. The proposal also includes a visit to the lab of Dr Ronny Geva, in Israel, to learn new techniques for measuring early stress from experts in her lab.
Planned Impact
i) Academic impact.
I have a proven track record of conducting high-impact research. For my PhD I developed new, computerised techniques to train the voluntary control of attention in infants. These new training techniques have been adopted by other groups as the basis for successful funding applications to the Medical Research Council, ESRC, British Academy, Nuffield Foundation, NIHR, MQ-charity and Wellcome Trust, in projects in the UK, EU and US. These target infants from atypical developmental groups including those at risk of Autism Spectrum Disorders and Attention Deficit Disorder.
In addition, during my PhD and postdoc I developed new methods to study early attention in three ways. First, I developed techniques to analyse data quality during infant eyetracking. This work has had substantial international impact, and I am regularly invited to teach masterclasses on the subject. Second, I created techniques to understand the role of exogenous factors (such as low-level salience) in guiding attention during spontaneous, naturalistic orienting. This has led to publications that can improve the design of child-directed screen media, such as TV. Third, I developed algorithms for measuring micro-temporal eye movements. These techniques have shed fresh light on infants in early stages of developing Autism, published in Nature Scientific Reports.
Over the past four years I have written 22 articles (15 first-authored) either published or under review in good-quality, international journals. One article that I have written has already received more than 100 citations.
As described above (in the Academic Beneficiaries section) my proposed research programme has a range of potential academic beneficiaries. These include scientists attempting to understand the role of stress in development; applied researchers aiming to understand how SES affects learning, clinicians, and educationalists. Pathways for maximizing this impact are described in Pathways to Impact.
ii) Non-academic impact.
I am an experienced, and nationally recognised, science communicator: I am one of the host scientists on the television series The Secret Lives of 4-Year-Olds (Channel 4/Wellcome Trust), and have talked regularly on-screen about stress and learning as part of that television series.
I have also given talks in the main house of the Royal Institution for school-aged children, and represented the Royal Institution internationally (in France and Kazakhstan). I have given countless public lectures, to lay audiences of 600+, for the Sutton Trust, Teach First program, and many others.
My work has also featured in the national and international print media (e.g. BBC News, Huffington Post), as well as on national radio (e.g. BBC Radio 4).
The themes of this proposal are of major relevance to parents. From my experience, I find that many parents are often surprisingly unaware that different children have different levels of autonomic arousal, and that this can affect their behavior in a variety of ways. For example, they appear unaware that a stressful situation (such as a noisy shopping centre) can affect a child much more than it would an adult - and that this may influence their behaviour, such as by triggering a tantrum. This lack of insight can change how adults respond to children - they might punish the child, instead of empathising with them.
On the other hand, many parents worry that factors such as raising children in urban environments, and exposing them to intensive computer game playing, can 'stress out' children. Our findings may highlight how early exposure to environmental noise can affect a child's attention and learning capacities. Thus, another potential impact of our research is to lead to attempts to reduce the amount of external, environmental stress to which children are exposed during early life.
Pathways for maximising this impact are described in the Pathways to Impact document.
I have a proven track record of conducting high-impact research. For my PhD I developed new, computerised techniques to train the voluntary control of attention in infants. These new training techniques have been adopted by other groups as the basis for successful funding applications to the Medical Research Council, ESRC, British Academy, Nuffield Foundation, NIHR, MQ-charity and Wellcome Trust, in projects in the UK, EU and US. These target infants from atypical developmental groups including those at risk of Autism Spectrum Disorders and Attention Deficit Disorder.
In addition, during my PhD and postdoc I developed new methods to study early attention in three ways. First, I developed techniques to analyse data quality during infant eyetracking. This work has had substantial international impact, and I am regularly invited to teach masterclasses on the subject. Second, I created techniques to understand the role of exogenous factors (such as low-level salience) in guiding attention during spontaneous, naturalistic orienting. This has led to publications that can improve the design of child-directed screen media, such as TV. Third, I developed algorithms for measuring micro-temporal eye movements. These techniques have shed fresh light on infants in early stages of developing Autism, published in Nature Scientific Reports.
Over the past four years I have written 22 articles (15 first-authored) either published or under review in good-quality, international journals. One article that I have written has already received more than 100 citations.
As described above (in the Academic Beneficiaries section) my proposed research programme has a range of potential academic beneficiaries. These include scientists attempting to understand the role of stress in development; applied researchers aiming to understand how SES affects learning, clinicians, and educationalists. Pathways for maximizing this impact are described in Pathways to Impact.
ii) Non-academic impact.
I am an experienced, and nationally recognised, science communicator: I am one of the host scientists on the television series The Secret Lives of 4-Year-Olds (Channel 4/Wellcome Trust), and have talked regularly on-screen about stress and learning as part of that television series.
I have also given talks in the main house of the Royal Institution for school-aged children, and represented the Royal Institution internationally (in France and Kazakhstan). I have given countless public lectures, to lay audiences of 600+, for the Sutton Trust, Teach First program, and many others.
My work has also featured in the national and international print media (e.g. BBC News, Huffington Post), as well as on national radio (e.g. BBC Radio 4).
The themes of this proposal are of major relevance to parents. From my experience, I find that many parents are often surprisingly unaware that different children have different levels of autonomic arousal, and that this can affect their behavior in a variety of ways. For example, they appear unaware that a stressful situation (such as a noisy shopping centre) can affect a child much more than it would an adult - and that this may influence their behaviour, such as by triggering a tantrum. This lack of insight can change how adults respond to children - they might punish the child, instead of empathising with them.
On the other hand, many parents worry that factors such as raising children in urban environments, and exposing them to intensive computer game playing, can 'stress out' children. Our findings may highlight how early exposure to environmental noise can affect a child's attention and learning capacities. Thus, another potential impact of our research is to lead to attempts to reduce the amount of external, environmental stress to which children are exposed during early life.
Pathways for maximising this impact are described in the Pathways to Impact document.
Publications
De Barbaro K
(2016)
Stress reactivity speeds basic encoding processes in infants.
in Developmental psychobiology
Wass SV
(2016)
Developmental Psychology: How Social Context Influences Infants' Attention.
in Current biology : CB
Wass SV
(2016)
Temporal dynamics of arousal and attention in 12-month-old infants.
in Developmental psychobiology
Leong V
(2017)
Speaker gaze increases information coupling between infant and adult brains.
in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Wass SV
(2017)
Changes in behavior and salivary cortisol after targeted cognitive training in typical 12-month-old infants.
in Developmental psychology
Rose SA
(2017)
Sustained attention in the face of distractors: A study of children with Rett syndrome.
in Neuropsychology
De Barbaro K
(2017)
Infant Attention Is Dynamically Modulated With Changing Arousal Levels.
in Child development
Wass SV
(2018)
How orchids concentrate? The relationship between physiological stress reactivity and cognitive performance during infancy and early childhood.
in Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews
Wass SV
(2018)
New meanings of thin-skinned: The contrasting attentional profiles of typical 12-month-olds who show high, and low, stress reactivity.
in Developmental psychology
Forssman L
(2018)
Training Basic Visual Attention Leads to Changes in Responsiveness to Social-Communicative Cues in 9-Month-Olds.
in Child development
Neale D
(2018)
Toward a Neuroscientific Understanding of Play: A Dimensional Coding Framework for Analyzing Infant-Adult Play Patterns.
in Frontiers in psychology
Hendry A
(2018)
Developmental change in look durations predicts later effortful control in toddlers at familial risk for ASD.
in Journal of neurodevelopmental disorders
Description | The main findings have been an increased awareness of the role of noisy home environments and how they affect early development. Of the papers that we published as a result of the award, the most important were one in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and one that is still under review. These papers showed for the first time that the effect of city life is detectable on childrens' physiological stress systems even during the first year of life. We also found that children being raised in noisier environments showed altered patterns of attention and emotion regulation. In terms of their attention and learning, 'city babies' showed lower sustained attention, but actually learnt faster. In terms of their emotion regulation, 'city babies' got upset more quickly. These findings give new insight into how noisy living environments can affect early development, with impacts both on later academic learning and psychopathology. |
Exploitation Route | We are actively pursuing this further - see section on ongoing research awards. |
Sectors | Creative Economy,Education,Healthcare |
Description | See activities documented in public engagement and policy impact. The award has led to a number of follow-on awards. In particular, follow-on work is now looking at whether similar influences of noise on development can also be shown in educational settings, comparing indoor and outdoor settings. We are also working with Newham Learning, a group of 40 mainly primary schools in Newham, and with Fennies Nurseries, a group of 20 nurseries, to look at how changing the ambient noise levels affects child development. At the time of writing we are also scheduled to present the main findings from the project at presentations for the Early Years Speech, Language and Communication Summit 2022, for Osiris Education, and in two interviews for the Times Educational Supplement. |
First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
Sector | Education |
Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Economic,Policy & public services |
Description | Talks for local council Early Years education |
Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Impact | I have given upwards of 30 talks to early years practitioners for local councils or organisations of head teachers, presenting the results of our findings from this award around the UK. The average attendance at the events has been c. 200, so I estimate that I have directly engaged with c. 6,000 early years policy makers, head teachers or teachers in this way. |
Description | 'Using "naturalistic dual-EEG" to measure mother-infant brain-to-brain (b2b) synchrony in socially-mediated learning' |
Amount | £247,699 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ES/N006461/1 |
Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2016 |
End | 12/2017 |
Description | Assessing covariance of indices of sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity during childhood in Rett Syndrome |
Amount | £182,426 (GBP) |
Organisation | Rett Syndrome Research Trust |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United States |
Start | 08/2017 |
End | 09/2019 |
Description | Cognitive Outcome Measures for Rett Syndrome: Assessment of Reliability and Stability |
Amount | £108,569 (GBP) |
Organisation | Rettsyndrome.org |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United States |
Start | 01/2018 |
End | 12/2019 |
Description | New insights into how the infant brain subserves dynamic social interactions |
Amount | £327,093 (GBP) |
Funding ID | RPG-2018-281 |
Organisation | The Leverhulme Trust |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2019 |
End | 12/2021 |
Description | Novel approaches to the early detection and treatment of ASD |
Amount | £706,347 (GBP) |
Organisation | Brain Canada Foundation |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | Canada |
Start | 03/2016 |
End | 01/2019 |
Description | Oscillatory neural and autonomic correlates of social attunedness during early life: new mechanistic insights into how we learn to learn from one another (ONACSA) |
Amount | £1,369,727 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ONACSA 853251 |
Organisation | European Research Council (ERC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | Belgium |
Start | 08/2020 |
End | 08/2025 |
Description | UBEL DTP Studentship |
Amount | £1,000,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Bloomsbury Doctoral Training Centre |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2017 |
End | 09/2021 |
Title | Developing new methods to monitor noise in the naturalistic home environment during early childhood |
Description | The main aim of my Fellowship has been to develop new techniques to monitor how noise in childrens' naturalistic home environment affects physiological stress during early development. We have worked extensively with hardware manufacturers in London and China and with firmware writers in Russia in developing and testing this equipment. The equipment is tested and working, and data collection is currently underway. This equipment is already being used in various other projects, including two PhD student projects funded by the London Interdisciplinary Social Sciences network and the UBEL ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership. |
Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | Data collection using these new techniques is currently underway |
Title | Vocal communication is tied to interpersonal arousal coupling in caregiver-infant dyads |
Description | It has been argued that a necessary condition for the emergence of speech in humans is the ability to vocalize irrespectively of underlying affective states, but when and how this happens during development remains unclear. To examine this, we used wearable microphones and autonomic sensors to collect multimodal naturalistic datasets from 12-month-olds and their caregivers. We observed that, across the day, clusters of vocalisations occur during elevated infant and caregiver arousal. This relationship is stronger in infants than caregivers: caregivers' vocalizations show greater decoupling with their own states of arousal, and their vocal production is more influenced by the infant's arousal than their own. Different types of vocalisation elicit different patterns of change across the dyad. Cries occur following reduced infant arousal stability and lead to increased child-caregiver arousal coupling, and decreased infant arousal. Speech-like vocalisations also occur at elevated arousal, but lead to longer-lasting increases in arousal, and elicit more parental verbal responses. Our results suggest that: 12-month-old infants' vocalisations are strongly contingent on their arousal state (for both cries and speech-like vocalisations), whereas adults' vocalisations are more flexibly tied to their own arousal; that cries and speech-like vocalisations alter the intra-dyadic dynamics of arousal in different ways, which may be an important factor driving speech development; and that this selection mechanism which drives vocal development is anchored in our stress physiology. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | http://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.612jm6473 |
Description | Eye movements in infants born prematurely |
Organisation | University of Edinburgh |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | I have collaborated with Dr Sue Fletcher-Watson by helping her to analyse some eyetracking data that she collected as part of a project at the University of Edinburgh. |
Collaborator Contribution | The project is analysing data that they have collected. |
Impact | We are analysing the data and shall be writing it up shortly. |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | State switching and emotion regulation during infancy and early childhood. |
Organisation | King's College |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Collaboration with Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke, funded by a £300,000 start-up grant from King's College University, to look at state switching and emotion regulation during infancy and early childhood. For this I am hosting and supervising two researchers, Dr Kasia Kostyrka-Allchorne and Zeynep Suata, in running testing with young children in our labs at the University of East London. The researchers are taking advantage of research equipment available there which was purchased from this FRL Fellowship. |
Collaborator Contribution | The two researchers, Dr Kasia Kostyrka-Allchorne and Zeynep Suata, are employees at King's College. The funding comes from a start-up grant given to Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke. |
Impact | Two testing projects are currently at piloting stage. |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Acted as media spokesperson for Public Health England campaign |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Acted as spokesperson for Public Health England campaign targeting parents and infants |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Appeared on BBC Breakfast talking about the new series of Secret Life of 4- and 5-Year-Olds |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Appeared on BBC Breakfast talking about the new series of Secret Life of 4- and 5-Year-Olds |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Appeared on BBC Radio 4 - World at One, talking about back to school nerves in children |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Appeared on BBC Radio 4 - World at One, talking about back to school nerves in children. 7/9/17 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live, talking about back to school nerves in children |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live, talking about back to school nerves in children 5/9/17 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Appeared on BBC World Service |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Appeared on BBC World Service 16/3/17 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04w50tq |
Description | Appeared on Channel 5 News |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Appeared on Channel 5 News - 6/7/17 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Appeared on Channel 5 News talking about children and eating |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Appeared on Channel 5 News talking about children and eating - 27/10/17 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Appeared on Radio 3 Free Thinking program |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Appeared on Radio 3 Free Thinking program 0 2/3/17 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08g5637 |
Description | Appeared on Radio 4 You and Yours |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Appeared on BBC Radio 4 You and Yours 7/7/17 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Appeared on Radio 5 Live |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Appeared on Radio 5 Live 27/01/17 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08b133n |
Description | Appeared on Radio 5 panel discussion about childcare |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Appeared on Radio 5 panel discussion about childcare - 28/11/17 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Appeared on Sky News talking about parenting |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Appeared on Sky News talking about parenting 29/1/18 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Contributed to CNN story on fussy eaters |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Contributed to CNN story on fussy eaters |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/14/health/fussy-eaters/ |
Description | Contributed to Daily Express article on politics in children |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Contributed to Daily Express article on politics in children |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/712866/momentum-kids-brainwash-labour-jeremy-corbyn |
Description | Contributed to Daily Telegraph article on child-father relationships |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Contributed to Telegraph article on child-father relationships |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/fatherhood/why-do-children-hate-their-dads--and-how-should-we-deal-wi... |
Description | Contributed to news articles about our PNAS paper on eye gaze and brain synchrony |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Contributed to news articles about our PNAS paper on eye gaze and brain synchrony. Eg: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/11/29/mothers-babies-brainwaves-snychronise-gaze-scientists-find/ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-5129551/Making-eye-contact-baby-synchronizes-brainwaves.html https://scienceblog.com/497768/eye-contact-baby-helps-synchronise-brainwaves/ |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/11/29/mothers-babies-brainwaves-snychronise-gaze-scientists-... |
Description | Early social and environmental influences on attention: from interpersonal synchrony to self control? Invited Seminar Presentation for Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Early social and environmental influences on attention: from interpersonal synchrony to self control? Invited Seminar Presentation for Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Gave interview in Times Educational Supplement |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Gave interview in Times Educational Supplement |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/four-year-olds-need-their-own-model-behaviour-ma... |
Description | How Childhood is Changing. Presentation for Waltham Forest Teacher's Association |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | How Childhood is Changing. Presentation for Waltham Forest Teacher's Association |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://thehub.walthamforest.gov.uk/training-events/early-years-moderation-conference |
Description | How does the brain change between infancy and middle childhood? Talk at Sunderland Early Years Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Talk at Sunderland Early Years Conference |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | http://sunderlandschools.org.uk/cpd/index.php/course-booking/event/0/345-eyfs/1044-sunderland-early-... |
Description | Invited seminar for Lancaster University. New Meanings of 'thin-skinned': autonomic and neural correlates of biological sensitivity to context. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Invited seminar for Lancaster University. New Meanings of 'thin-skinned': autonomic and neural correlates of biological sensitivity to context. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Invited seminar for the Centre for Educational Neuroscience, London. New Meanings of 'thin-skinned': autonomic and neural correlates of biological sensitivity to context. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Invited seminar for the Centre for Educational Neuroscience, London. New Meanings of 'thin-skinned': autonomic and neural correlates of biological sensitivity to context. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Invited seminar presentation at Toronto University Medical School, Canada. Attention training in infancy. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Invited seminar presentation at Toronto University Medical School, Canada. Attention training in infancy. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Naughty, Naughty! Some Scientific Insights on Why Children Misbehave. Talk at the Child of the Twenty-First Century Workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Naughty, Naughty! Some Scientific Insights on Why Children Misbehave. Talk at the Child of the Twenty-First Century Workshop |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Negative Emotions in Children - Talk at the Early Years Foundation Scheme conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Negative Emotions in children Talk at the Early Years Foundation Scheme conference |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Participated in Bexley Teachers 'Mind the Gap' conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Participated and gave a talk at a conference with teachers looking at the effect of SES on school performance. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://www.bexleyservicesnetwork.co.uk |
Description | Participated in Mumsnet podcasts |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Participated in Mumsnet podcasts, exploring the themes of my fellowship for parents of young children. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Participation in Channel 4 series The Secret Life of 4-Year-Olds |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Contributed to Channel 4 series The Secret Life of 4-Year-Olds, which explored many of the themes of my fellowship. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-secret-life-of-4-5-and-6-year-olds |
Description | Talk at British Psychological Society Developmental Section conference. How orchids and dandelions concentrate: the contrasting attentional profiles of typical 12-month-olds who show high, and low, stress reactivity. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | How orchids and dandelions concentrate: the contrasting attentional profiles of typical 12-month-olds who show high, and low, stress reactivity. Talk at British Psychological Society Developmental Section conference. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Talk at Early Years Foundation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Gave talk on themes of fellowship to teachers and childcarers working with early years |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://my.optimus-education.com/conferences/supporting-progress-reception-teaching-play-and-assessme... |
Description | Talk at Oundle School - Modern childhood |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Talk at Oundle School for 6th form students |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Talk at the European Conference on Eye Movements, Wuppertal. Infants' visual sustained attention is higher during joint play than solo play: is this due to increased endogenous attention control or exogenous stimulus capture? |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Talk at the European Conference on Eye Movements, Wuppertal. Infants' visual sustained attention is higher during joint play than solo play: is this due to increased endogenous attention control or exogenous stimulus capture? |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Talk for London ADHD Research Forum - Early social and environmental influences on attention: from interpersonal synchrony to self control? |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Talk for London ADHD Research Forum - Early social and environmental influences on attention: from interpersonal synchrony to self control? |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Teaching Tomorrow's Child - talk at Croft Multi Academy Trust |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Talk at Crofty Multi Academy Trust Early Years Conference in Newquay |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.imattination.co.uk/crofty-conference-february-2018/ |
Description | Teaching Tomorrow's Child - talk for Early Excellence Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Teaching Tomorrow's Child.Talk for early years practitioners at Early Excellence Conference in London and Huddersfield |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | http://earlyexcellence.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/EX_Conference_2017.pdf |
Description | Teaching Tomorrow's Child. Talk at Salford Professional Development Early Years conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Talk for school teachers at Salford Professional Development Early Years conference |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | http://www.salford.ac.uk/onecpd/conferences/the-future-of-early-years-conference |
Description | Tomorrow's Child. Presentation for Barnado charity fundraising event in Dublin, Ireland |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Tomorrow's Child. Presentation for Barnado charity fundraising event in Dublin, Ireland |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Training attentional control in infancy. Presentation at Cambridge Cognitive Training Symposium, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Cambridge. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Training attentional control in infancy. Presentation at Cambridge Cognitive Training Symposium, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Cambridge. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |