[xmca] Bugged by buggies

I woke up to this item on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 this morning which I thought might be of interest to XMCA:

"Is it better to push your child in an outward facing buggy, so your baby looks out on the world, or an inward-facing one, where it sees your face you but little else? Researchers have been tackling this question and their findings suggest that inward-facing prams could be better for your child's development and well-being. Zubeida Malik asks some mothers what they made of it. Dr Suzanne Zeedyk, senior lecturer at Dundee University, discusses the research findings."

The mothers seemed puzzled by the conclusions (which were presented as outward-facing buggies mean less psychological development, though I'm not sure how you screen out all the other factors that affect it). Their response was that there was more stimulus looking out at the world than at the mother's face. There was no mention of the age of the children which must make a difference.

The interview can be heard from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7741000/7741073.stm

Suzanne Zeedyk describes her research as:"My empirical work on parent-infant interaction gives particular attention to questions about the development of the self, within the context of dyadic communication. My original focus on typical infant development has come to encompass atypical developmental circumstances that impair communicative abilities (e.g., sensory impairment, autism, learning disabilities, severe early neglect)."

Should Vygotskyans favour inward-looking buggies? That was my first thought.

Bruce R |
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Received on Fri Nov 21 03:40:08 2008