Institute for Research in Child Development IRCD Research Assistant (Taking eye-tracking into children’s centres) (12 months) Salary in the range of £ 30,583 to £ 31,403 pa (inclusive of LW) The Institute for Research in Child Development, in collaboration with Birkbeck (University of London) have gained funding from the Nuffield foundation to undertake a ground-breaking study using new technologies to engage parents from disadvantaged areas in the assessment of the language and social development of their babies. We are seeking a Research Assistant to work on the project which will involve taking eye-tracking equipment out of the lab and into Children’s centres. The RA will work closely with Derek Moore, Elena Kushnerenko, and Przemeck Tomalski from IRCD and with Mark Johnson (CBCD) and Annette Karmiloff-Smith (DNL) from Birkbeck College. The study is in partnership with Tower Hamlets, Newham and Acuity, UK suppliers of Tobii eye-tracking equipment. Successful applicants will have a first degree in psychology, higher degree desirable and post graduate experience. Experience of using eye-tracking equipment with babies and an interest in developing your experience and working with parents in a ‘real world’ setting is essential. Applicants with expertise in infant cognition, infant attention, developmental difficulties and/or developmental cognitive neuroscience are particularly welcome. www.uel.ac.uk/IRCD For informal enquires please email: d.g.moore@uel.ac.uk JOB DESCRIPTION Job Title: Grade: School/Service: Campus: Responsible to: Responsible for: Liaison with: Research Assistant (taking eye tracking into children’s centres) E IRCD/Psychology Stratford Prof Derek Moore, Przemeck Tomalski, Elena Kushnerenko Running Nuffield funded research project Mark Johnson, Annette Karmiloff-Smith (collaborators at Birkbeck). Partners and staff from children’s centres in Newham and Tower Hamlets JOB PURPOSE To undertake a Nuffield foundation funded research project taking eye-tracking paradigms out of the laboratory and into children’s centres with the intention of exploring how best to engage parents and practitioners in these methods within ‘real world’ settings in order to collect data from hard to access populations from areas of significant deprivation. The RA will undertake the detailed assessment of babies in children’s centre contexts using a Tobii eye-tracker; and will engage with parents and earlyyears workers, to explore how engaging they find the techniques and methods. MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES 1. To liaise with children’s centres and parents and engage parents in finding out about their baby’s abilities to coordinate their attention to social and non-social stimuli. 2. To assess the effectiveness of the methods in collecting data and in engaging parents and practitioners 3. To undertake the analysis of eye-tracking data and contribute to the publication of the research. 4. To undertake focus group work with parents and practitioners to evaluate their engagement with the project. 5. To liaise with the Director of the Institute and with Research fellows to ensure the timely delivery of the project aims and objectives. 6. To contribute to the reputation of the Institute for Research in Child Development by the pursuit of research of high standing. 7. To help and support other researchers, including research students, associated with the Institute. 8. To engage in other research activities as determined by the Director of the Institute for Child Development. PERSON SPECIFICATION Research Assistant (taking eye tracking into children’s centres) EDUCATION QUALIFICATIONS AND ACHIEVEMENTS: Essential criteria: BSc in Psychology or related discipline (A) Masters or PhD in Psychology or related discipline (A) KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE: Essential criteria: Post-graduate experience of assessing infant cognitive and social abilities (A, I) Experience of using eye-tracking equipment with infants (A, I) Knowledge of and expertise in developmental cognitive neuroscience (A, I, P) Understanding of issues relating to social deprivation (A, I) Experience of working on research projects with infants at risk and working on collaborative projects (A, I) Desirable criteria: Experience of working with children’s centres and understanding of qualitative and quantitative methods (A, I) Publications in high quality academic journals (A, I) SKILLS AND ABILITIES: Essential criteria: Understanding of infant research methods and knowledge of issues relating to developmental difficulties (A, I) Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to organise and undertake research projects (A, I) Desirable criteria: High level understanding of statistics and computing (I, C) Administrative and organizational abilities (A, I) PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES AND QUALITIES: Essential criteria: Ability to self motivate and work effectively either as part of a team or individually (A/I) Availability to work some evenings and occasional weekends (A/I) Commitment to and understanding of equal opportunities issues within a diverse and multicultural environment (A/I) Criteria tested by Key: A = Application form P = Presentation C = Certification R = Research papers I = Interview T = Test About IRCD IRCD was created in 2007 as a focus for academic child development research in East London. East London has always been an area of social change with pockets of significant deprivation and this inevitably has an impact on the development of children. Whether a parent or an academic or a public or third sector professional working with children, we are all concerned with ensuring the best outcomes for children. To do this we need to draw on the best available evidence. There are currently three main themes to the research of IRCD and we work across ages from newborn babies to adolescents. We are concerned with research that helps to understand both the fundamental processes of development and the conditions that influence outcomes. IRCD is committed to research that allows us to understand factors that have both positive and negative influences on development from birth onwards. While we are based in the School of Psychology at UEL and many of our staff have a background in child and developmental psychology, IRCD is an interdisciplinary organisation and we work with academics and partners from the health, public and third sectors. We have links with many external organisations and partners. Members of IRCD already have international reputations in undertaking interdisciplinary (Psychology, health, neuroscience) studies of the impact of environmental factors on infant and child neuro-cognitive, health and developmental outcomes. IRCD members (Edmonds, Kushnerenko, & Moore) have published highly-cited, high impact studies of the neuro-behavioural outcomes of infants and children: born prematurely; born with low birth weight, exposed to drugs; born with Down syndrome; and exposed to aluminium in their feed. IRCD members have considerable expertise in looking longitudinally at neurobehavioral outcomes in children and developing new methods for studying infants. These studies have shown differential cognitive, behavioural and neurological outcomes in infants and this work has informed our recent work developing early screening batteries for infants from populations of mothers living in areas of significant deprivation in London. IRCD members have active collaborations with colleagues in institutions with international reputations in child development and child health, including the Institute for Child Health, Case Western Reserve, Tavistock Centre, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Bikbeck. The RA would therefore be joining a vibrant and well connected interdisciplinary research group with opportunities for continued development. IRCD currently has a purpose built Babylab and 128 channel EEG lab. see: www.uel.ac.uk/IRCD. The Research Assistant will be based in the Institute for Research in Child Development (IRCD) and the work builds and consolidates IRCD’s key thematic program in Neuroscience and Early Development. Summary of the project There is emerging evidence that atypical patterns of early attention to specific speech and social stimuli may be indicators of emerging language and social difficulties and that eye-tracking is likely to provide a useful and engaging means of assessing these predictive abilities. However, whether these or any other candidate eye-tracking tasks can be effectively delivered in community settings and are as engaging when used in these situations as they are in a laboratory situation has yet to be demonstrated. Before developing screening batteries, it is critical to establish that they can be delivered in Children’s centres, that the parents find them as engaging in the community as they do in the lab, and that staff are able to engage with the process too. Thus, the primary and immediate aim of this study is to assess the utility of eye-tracker technology as a vehicle for engaging staff and parents in a process of exploration of their baby’s development, particularly with respect to parents from low-income families. The success of this aim will be measured by a range of quantitative and qualitative methods administered after the test sessions. The longer term secondary aim is to assess whether the data we collect from the eye-tracker is predictive of infant capacities longitudinally, thereby confirming the potential longer-term use of the methods in screening in infancy for subsequent language and social problems. Demonstrating the validity of this approach could open the way for further large-scale implementations of current and future advances in basic and clinical science being made in this area. Current lab-based research is already indicating that infant eye-tracker measures are useful for the early prediction of atypical outcomes such as autism and ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder). Note, it is our intention, beyond the term of this project, to follow up this cohort through to school age. It is important to note, however, that we will not be suggesting to parents or staff that the eye-tracker measures we are collecting can yet be used as a means of diagnosis of atypical development. We are acutely aware of the ethical importance of not raising unnecessary parental concerns. In sum, our aims place the proposal firmly at the junction of community benefit, technological advances, and basic and clinical science. Themes and publications Neuroscience, and early development In 2008 IRCD were closely involved in commissioning a brand new Babylab and EEG lab in the School of Psychology and have been developing laboratory methods (Eye-tracking, EEG) that can be employed in a laboratory and real world setting and that are able to detect early language, attention and social difficulties and set up the Early Language attention and Social Development study (ELAS). This work has been done in collaboration with CBCD at Birkbeck. We see the use of neuroscience methods to address issues of social deprivation as an area in which we will become international leaders. We have a number of studies in this area exploring these issues: The Daisy study led by Moore was funded by NIH and completed in 2008. We have important longitudinal data on the development of a unique cohort of infants exposed to a mixture of recreational drugs in utero, including the first ever outcome data on the in utero effects of Ecstasy (MDMA) The RF may facilitate in the development of new spin-off projects examining the in utero impact of popular drugs, including cannabis and methamphetamines, on infant neurobehavioral outcomes. Kushnerenko has considerable expertise in assessing neurobehavioral (EEG) outcomes in low birth weight and premature babies with many high impact papers in this area This work is in collaboration with colleagues in Finland, Hungary and the Netherlands Edmonds also has expertise in the impact of prematurity, nutrition and hydration on longer term outcomes in children,and has strong collaborative links with the Institute for Child Health. Edmonds has also gained funds from Nestle (Switzerland) to support a PhD studentship. The ELAS study is utilising EEG and eye-tracking methods to detect early difficulties in language, attention and social development in infants from low SES backgrounds. We have developed a highly important collaboration with Johnson and Karmiloff-Smith from the world renowned Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, and secured funding from the ERANDA foundation to employ Tomalski to work on this project. He was visiting RF at UEL and was recently appointed as a Post-Doc in IRCD. We also have pending funding applications for aspects of this project with ESRC and Nuffield. The RF will therefore be joining an area of research in which there is a huge potential to expand and develop. We have already gathered significant pilot data showing the impact of SES-related factors on early brain activity in infants and there are a number of high impact papers already in preparation and planned [see 25-26,30-32]. The RF would contribute to the analysis, write-up and securing of additional funds. See www.uel.ac.uk/IRCD for more. Health, wellbeing and risk A second area in which the Institute works concerns issues around health, wellbeing and risk. The importance of this area is highlighted by many agencies including the DCSF and the Department of Health. For example, a recent Health Child Report (Oct 2009) reports that weight-related problems are forecast to cost £50 billion to the wider economy by 2050 (Foresight, 2007) and reminds us that the Securing Our Future Health (Wanless, 2002) report has already demonstrated the importance of public engagement with health, a process which is only likely to be successful if it starts early in life. Our work overlaps with the Institute for Health and Human Development at UEL (IHHD) and together we have developed a successful collaboration and are undertaking the Wellcome funded Well London Adolescent Study evaluating the effectiveness of the £9m targeted Well London community based initiatives; designed to address health and social inequalities and to lead to positive outcomes for adults and children. In 2009 IRCD undertook the baseline survey of 1200+ adolescents living in the 40 targeted housing estates in London. The follow up will be in 2012. Caroline Edmonds is developing projects relating health and cognition and her promising recent UEL researcher grant and funding from external sources underpins her recent work examining the role of hydration in childhood cognition. She is interested in the positive effects of water consumption on cognitive performance, both in children and in adults. Recent work in adults includes measuring hydration using bioelectrical impedance and relating this to cognitive performance measured using CANTAB. Edmonds, Kushnerenko and Moore also share expertise in neuro-cognitive and health-related outcomes in infants at risk. In the case of Edmonds, cognitive outcomes of infants born prematurely, those exposed to aluminium, the effects of intra-uterine growth restriction on cognition and brain structure and the effects of LC-PUFAs (long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids) on cognition.; in the case of Moore, the DAISY study of infants exposed to MDMA and other drugs in utero and studies of infants with Down syndrome, and in the case of Kushnerenko, infants who were born prematurely. We undertake research looking at the immediate and the long term impacts of these risks. We are also developing studies looking at childhood obesity (with colleagues in the school of Health and Biosciences) and will be expanding these areas of work in the coming years. Identity, Diversity, Developmental Difficulties and Education Given the population of east London and the mission of the University, issues around diversity and education are clearly central to the work of IRCD. There is considerable policy and political interest in issues around social and developmental difficulties and socio-economic deprivation. See for example the recent DCSF Bercow Report (Bercow 2008; Lindsay et al 2008). In this it was reported that. “Approximately 50% of children in some socio-economically disadvantaged populations have speech and language skills that are significantly lower than those of other children of the same age. […] and approximately 7% of 5 year olds or nearly 40,000 children going into school in 2007 in England had significant difficulties with speech and/or language. Derek Moore has undertaken many studies in the area of Developmental Difficulties as has Rachel George (Down syndrome, Autism, SLI) and Chris Pawson’s recently completed thesis examines issues about peers and moral development in school children. We will be further developing this work in the years ahead. Thus work in this area has considerable relevance with a clear need for UEL to be involved in addressing these issues. Virginia Lam is particularly interested in issues around ethnic and national identity and this is an area in which we are seeking to expand. Recent proposals are also dealing specifically with the Olympics and the legacy and we will be looking to work with others across sectors to develop further studies around these issues. Training and knowledge exchange A final area of work is in the development of real links with professionals working in East London. While research publications and conference presentations are excellent forms of dissemination of research to specialised audiences it is clear that IRCD needs to do more than this if it is to have a direct influence on child-related practice. We have had many discussions with agencies about how to disseminate research findings to a wider audience and are actively making links with external public sector and third sector bodies. For example, we have recently worked closely with Tower Hamlets Children’s services to deliver training courses in child development to their staff. 50 recent outputs by staff 1. Cebula, K, Moore, D.G. & Wishart, J. (2010) Social Cognition in Children with Down’s Syndrome: Challenges to Research and Theory Building. Invited Review. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 54, 113-134 2. Ceponiene, R., Kushnerenko, E. , Fellman, V., Renlund, M., Suominen, K., & Naatanen, R. (2002). Eventrelated potential features indexing central auditory discrimination by newborns. Cognitive Brain Res, 13, 101-113. 3. Csibra, G., Kushnerenko, E., & Grossmann, T. (in press). Electrophysiological methods in studying infant cognitive development. To appear in C. Nelson & M. Luciana (Eds.), Handbook of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (2nd Edition) MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 4. Dockrell, J. E., Messer, D., & George, R. (2003). Beyond naming patterns in children with word-finding difficulties - Definitions for nouns and verbs. Journal of Neurolinguistics. 16, 191-211. 5. Dockrell, J.E., Messer, D.M., & George, R. (2001). Patterns of naming objects and actions in children with word-finding difficulties. Language and Cognitive Processes. 16 (2/3) 261-286. 6. Edmonds, C.J. & Burford, D. (2009). Should children drink more water? The effects of drinking water on cognition in children. Appetite, 52, 776-779. 7. Edmonds, C.J. & Jeffes, B. (2009). Does having a drink help you think? 6–7 year old children show improvements in cognitive performance from baseline to test after having a drink of water. Appetite, 53, 469-472. 8. Edmonds, C.J., Isaacs, E.B, Cole, T.J., Rogers, M., Lanigan, J., Singhal, A., Gringras, P., Denton, J., & Lucas, A. (under revision). Effects of birthweight on cognition in childhood: a monozygous twin study. Pediatrics 9. Edmonds, C.J., Isaacs, E.B., Visscher, P.M., Rogers, M., Lanigan, J., Singhal, A., et al. (2008). Inspection time and cognitive abilities in twins aged 7 to 17 years: development, heritability and genetic covariance. Intelligence, 36, 210–225. 10. Edmonds,C.J. & Pring, L. (2006). Generating inferences from written and spoken language: a comparison of children with visual impairment and children with sight. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 24, 337-351. 11. Fewtrell, M.S., Bishop, N.J., Edmonds, C.J., Isaacs, E.B. & Lucas, A.L. (2009). Aluminium exposure from intravenous feeding solutions and later bone health: 15 year follow-up of a randomised trial in preterm infants. Pediatrics, 124, 1372-1379. 12. George, R. (2002). Recent research on numeracy skills in children with Specific Language Impairment. Afasic Abstracts 13. George, R., Oates, J.M. & Wood, C. (2005) Methods and Skills Handbook. Open University 14. Gillibrand, R., Lam, V. L., & O’Donnell, V. (forthcoming, eds.). Developmental psychology: A European text. Harlow: Pearsons. 15. Guerrero, S., Enesco, E., & Lam, V. (under review). Racial awareness, cognitive performance and affect: a study with preschool children. Social Development. 16. Hubert, B., Wicker, B., Moore, D.G., Monfardini, E., & Deruelle, C. (2007) Recognition of emotional and non-emotional biological motion in adults with autistic spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders , 37, 1386–1392 17. Isaacs, E.B., Edmonds, C.J., Chong, W.K., Lucas, A. & Gadian, D.G. (2003). Cortical anomalies associated with visuospatial processing deficits. Annals of Neurology, 53, 468-773. 18. Isaacs, E.B., Edmonds, C.J., Chong, W.K., Lucas, A., Morley, R., & Gadian, D.G. (2004) Brain morphometry and IQ measurements in preterm children. Brain, 127, 2595-2607. 19. Isaacs, E.B., Edmonds, C.J., Lucas, A. & Gadian, D.G. (2001). Calculation difficulties in children of very low birthweight: a neural correlate. Brain, 124, 1701-1707 20. Jansson-Verkasalo, E., Ruusuvirta, T., Huotilainen, M. Alku, P., Kushnerenko, E., Suominen, K., Rytky, S., Luotonen, M., Kaukola, T., Tolonen, U., Hallman, M. (submitted), Delayed perceptual narrowing in prematurely born human infants is associated with compromised language performance at 2 years of age. . Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 21. Kushnerenko E, Teinonen T, Volein A, Csibra G. (2008) Electrophysiological evidence of illusory audiovisual speech percept in human infants. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 105(32):11442-5. 22. Kushnerenko, E., Johnson, MH (in press) The Newborn Behavior. To appear in Lagercrantz, H. Hanson, M., Peebles, Ment, & Evrard, P (Eds) The Newborn Brain: Neuroscience and Clinical Applications (2nd Edition) 23. Kushnerenko, E., Ceponiene, R., Balan, P., Fellman, V., Huotilainen, M., & Naatanen, R. (2002). Maturation of the auditory event-related potentials during the 1st year of life. NeuroReport, 13, 47-51 24. Kushnerenko, E., Winkler, I., Horváth, J., Näätänen, R., Pavlov, I., Fellman, V., et al. (2007). Processing acoustic change and novelty in newborn infants. European Journal of Neuroscience, 26(1), 265–274. 25. Lam, V. L., & Leman, P. J. (2003). The influence of gender and ethnicity on children’s inferences about toy choice. Social Development, 18, 269-286. 26. Lam, V. L., & Leman, P. J. (2009). Children’s gender- and ethnicity-based reasoning about foods. Social Development, 18, 478-496. 27. Lam, V. L., Guerrero, S., Damree, N., & Enesco, I. (in press). Young children’s racial awareness and affect in a multiracial context. British Journal of Developmental Psychology. 28. Lam, V., & Smith, G. (2009). African and Caribbean adolescents in Britain: ethnic identity and Britishness. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 32, 1248-1270. 29. Leipälä, J., Partanen, E., Kushnerenko, E., Huotilainen, M., Fellman, V. (Submitted) Perinatal cerebral insults alter auditory event-related potentials. Early Human Development 30. Leman, P. J., & Lam, V. L. (2008). The influence of race and gender of children’s conversations and playmate choices. Child Development, 79, 1329-1343. 31. Mikkola, K, Kushnerenko, E., Partanen, E., Serenius-Sirved, S., Leipäläa, J., Huotilainen, M., Fellman, V. (2007) Auditory event-related potentials and neurocognition of preterm children at five years of age. Clin Neurophysiol. 118(7):1494-502 32. Moore, D.G, Burland, K., & Davidson, J.W., (2003) The social context of musical success: a developmental account. British Journal of Psychology. 94, 529-549. 33. Moore, D.G. (2001) Reassessing emotion recognition performance in people with mental retardation: a review. American Journal on Mental Retardation. Vol 106, 481-502. 34. Moore, D.G., Goodwin, J.E. George, R., Axelsson, E. & Braddick, F. (2007) Infants perceive human point- light displays as solid forms. Cognition 104, 163-436. 35. Moore, D.G., Goodwin, J.E., & Oates, J.M. (2008) A modified version of the BSID-II scales for cognitive matching of infants with and without Down syndrome. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research 52(6), 554-561. 36. Moore, D.G., Oates J.M., Goodwin, J.E., & Hobson, R.P. (2008). Behaviour of infants with Down syndrome and their mothers in the still-face paradigm. Infancy 13(1), 75-89 37. Moore, D.G., Oates, J.M., Hobson, R.P. and Goodwin, J.E. (2002) Cognitive and social factors in the development of infants with Down syndrome. Down Syndrome Research and Practice. vol 8, p43-52. 38. Moore, D.G., Turner, J.J.T. et al (in press) In-utero exposure to Ecstasy (MDMA) and Methamphetamine (MA): preliminary findings, limitations and predictions. Invited chapter for Philip Preece and Ed Riley (Eds). The price for the child. Exposure to foetal teratogens and long-term neuro-developmental outcome. 39. Moore, D.G., Turner, J.J.T., Parrott, A.C, Goodwin, J.E., Fulton, S.E. Min, , M.O., Fox, H.C., Braddick, F.M.B., Toplis, A., Axelsson, E.L., Lynch, S., Ribeiro, H.,Frostick, C.J. & Singer L.T. (in press) During pregnancy, recreational drug-using women stop taking ecstasy (MDMA) and reduce alcohol consumption but continue to smoke tobacco and cannabis. Journal of Psychopharmacology 40. Nobes, G., Moore, D.G, Martin, A., Clifford, B., Butterworth,G., & Siegal, M. (2003) Mental models or fragments of knowledge? Children's understanding of the earth in a multicultural community. Developmental Science. 6(1) 74-97. 41. Nobes, G., Panagiotaki, G. & Pawson, C, J. (2009) The influence of negligence, intention, and outcome on children’s moral judgments. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 104, p.382-397 42. Parron, C., Da Fonseca, D.,Santos, A., Moore, D.G., Monfardini, E, & Deruelle, C. (2008) Recognition of biological motion in high functioning children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders. Autism 12, 261-274 43. Pawson, C. J., & Gibbes, C.L. (2004). Mentoring recidivist youth offenders. In Ng, S.K., Chiu, C.T., & Candlin, C. (Eds.). Modern Perspectives in Language and Social Psychology. City University Press, Hong Kong. 44. Tanner, R.E.S., & Pawson, C.J. (2004). Contemporary Religious Violence and the Environment: Some Tentative Observations and Assessments. Journal of Human Ecology. 15 (2) 119-127. 45. Sambeth, A., Huotilainen, M., Kushnerenko, E., Fellman, V., & Pihko, E. (2006). Newborns discriminate novel from harmonic sounds: A study using magnetoencephalography. Clin Neurophysiol, 117(3), 496503. 46. Tomalski P. & Johnson M.H. (in press). What are the effects of early adversity on the adult and developing brain? Current Opinion in Psychiatry. 47. Tomalski, P., Csibra, G., & Johnson, M. H. (2009). Rapid orienting toward face-like stimuli with gazerelevant contrast information. Perception, 38(4), 569-578. 48. Tomalski, P., Johnson, M. H., & Csibra, G. (2009). Temporal-nasal asymmetry of rapid orienting to facelike stimuli. Neuroreport, 20(15), 1309-1312. 49. Wall, M, Hayes, R. Moore, D.G. et al (2009) Evaluation of community level interventions to address social and structural determinants of health: a cluster randomised controlled trial. BMC Public Health 9:207 50. Winkler, I., Kushnerenko, E., Horvath, J., Ceponiene, R., Fellman, V., Huotilainen, M., et al. (2003). Newborn infants can organize the auditory world. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 100(20), 11812-11815.