Through a better understanding of motor learning, we can begin to craft early interventions to fit the needs of our participants. Our study aims to focus on how infants at elevated risk for autism learn motor skills for the purposes of developing early interventions. We accomplish this through non-invasive measures using play based assessments and a motor learning task.
What are the goals of the study?
The current project for the infant robot interaction study aims to better understand how infants at elevated and community risk for autism learn motor skills. We are specifically interested in how infants integrate their vision and movements to learn that their behaviors are controlling our robot. We ultimately want to understand infant motor learning so that we can better tailor early motor interventions.
What will happen during the visit or online?
Participants will come to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles for a single hour visit. We will place 4 movement sensors on your child’s arms and legs, and a head mounted eye tracker on their head. With these devices on, we will record a video of your child observing our robot talk and move. At the end of the visit, we will measure your infant’s weight, length, and motor milestones. You will also go home with a short survey that asks you about your child’s everyday behaviors.
How will this help families?
No direct benefits will be given to the participants of our study. However, our goal is to better understand how infants at elevated risk for autism learn motor skills so that we can better develop early interventions for this population. Through early intervention, infants can have the best start to life by working on the needs of the patient.