Research in the Child Development Lab and a Newfound Appreciation for Coding

 Ricaute Rogers, Verrazzano Class of 2022, completed major in Psychology BS

With the completion of my capstone project, there is much to take away and be grateful for. My project focused on infant sleep and how it was affected by the motor acquisition. In other words, I examined how sleep changed in infants when they were learning how to sit.

This research opportunity took place virtually in the Child Development Lab due to COVID restrictions, and I was able to get a first-hand view of the lab’s ability to function during a pandemic.

During my time in the lab, which was headed by Dr. Sarah Berger, I learned that the workflow of the lab did not slow down, nor did the lab's significance decline because of the situation it was placed in. We simply learned how to adapt and overcome, and being part of the process was a blessing.

Going into college freshman year, I honestly never saw myself working in the Child Development Lab. If you told me I was going to work in the Child Development Lab during a pandemic, I would tell you you’re lying. The uniqueness of the situation granted all the memories that I have, and hopefully it’s something that I can look back at and laugh at, as an age where we were all staring at our laptops and working collectively.

The last thing I’ll share about the lab is just being thankful for getting the opportunity to code for infant research. In my senior year of high school, I took an introduction to computer science class, and I absolutely hated it. I told myself that I would never code again. The Child Development Lab gave me a new perspective on coding and honestly opened a door that I thought I had closed. Without completing this capstone and joining the Child Development Lab, getting that second opportunity would be have never happened.

Researching How Co-Sleeping Affects Infant Sleep

Rehab Sobhi, Verrazzano Class of 2022, completed major in Psychology with minors in Photography and Spanish 

Joining the Research Child Development Lab in the Fall Semester of 2020 was a strange yet memorable experience in my college years. It was strange because it was in the middle of the pandemic and everything was switched to online, and the whole purpose of this lab is to interact with infants and toddlers depending on the specific research.

Throughout my research semesters, I participated in assisting on a project called Sleep States – 5 Nights. The research study was conducted to monitor infants’ sleep onset, wake time, nightly wake episodes, sleep duration, and sleep efficiency. Before crawling, infants wore a monitor called an actigraph around their left ankle until they were able to walk independently. Moreover, a Nanit Home Baby Monitor recorded activity during the night, and daily parent dairies were used to keep track of any skills that developed over time and any nightly wake periods. Data collected from three nights per month, videos before, on, and after milestone acquisition were coded for REM and non-REM intervals.

As an assistant, there were several tasks required that allowed me to gain knowledge in the research field and make sense of specific scientific terminologies. For instance, I completed subject payments, which is a PDF booklet summarizing the baby’s results and thanking them for engaging, follow up on emails with parents in attempt to have their baby to participate, read literature as well look at my mentors’ papers including their dissertation, and so much more. This became a challenge at times as I have no particular interest in the science field and I tend to get distracted once the terms get too difficult for me to understand. However, I am thankful that I chose a research lab with great mentors that took the time to patiently explain things more than once if needed and did not allow for me to complete a task without understanding the major points even if I am not necessarily partaking in the study. I became more eager to comprehend the material and decided to participate in this specific research lab because the main subjects were babies. I always wanted to learn more about their development and why they may act a certain way, whether it was because of a milestone or because they learn from human interaction, mainly their parents.

Reading previous papers my mentor had written gave me the opportunity to discover what was already researched and what topics may have been vaguely mentioned and could be expanded on. As I was reading one paper, there was a sentence including co-sleeping and bed sharing that led me to the topic and question of my Capstone, “How Does Co-Sleeping Affect Infant Sleep?”. I presented my research at the the virtual Undergraduate Research Conference in the Spring 2021. As difficult as it was to navigate certain steps in completing the “poster” virtually, it was an unforgettable experience and thankfully a smooth process altogether. From there, I continued from my mini study to completing my Capstone paper in the last two semesters. Some obstacles I came across that prevented me from completing tasks in a timely manner included miscommunication, late responses from both the professor and I, personal matters such as moving, and many more. All in all, this research journey emphasized that starting off with bumps across the road will eventually lead you to the final destination of success.