The latest I-LABS discovery reveals that bilingual baby brains have increased activity in executive function regions, suggesting early cognitive benefits to learning multiple languages. The new findings, published online April 4 in Developmental Science, underscore the importance of early childhood as the optimum time for learning multiple languages. The study is the first to use magnetoencephalography to compare whole-brain responses … Read More
Babies: Better Safe Than Sorry
Adults often form fast opinions about each other’s personalities, especially when it comes to negative traits. If we see someone argue with another driver over a parking space, for instance, we may assume that person tends to be confrontational. The two new research studies with hundreds of 15-month-old infants demonstrate that babies form similar generalizations about others and make attempts … Read More
Columns Magazine: ‘How Does Baby Learn?’
From how babies’ brains respond to speech and touch to the latest impacts early learning science has made in society, UW’s Columns magazine features I-LABS in its March 2016 issue. The story, “How Does Baby Learn?,” describes how I-LABS is “revolutionizing theories of human development.” The 4-page feature covers I-LABS’ most recent research and outreach accomplishments and gives sneak peeks … Read More
Ask I-LABS Outreach: What’s the Big Deal About Screen Media?
How do we make good choices about our children’s use of screen media? The I-LABS Outreach team gives an update on the science and practical strategies for parents. Oh, screen media. A favorite TV show, app, video game, or other digital entertainment can hold—and sometimes consume—a child’s attention. It’s a convenient tool for parents who need an uninterrupted moment to … Read More
Media Coverage: How to Talk to Kids About Race?
Adults often don’t know how to talk about race with children, and I-LABS’ Onnie Rogers is trying to help. Rogers, a research assistant professor at I-LABS and in the UW College of Education, uses in-depth interviews to reveal how race and gender stereotypes affect Black children and how they think about themselves. Kids will tell her that skin color “doesn’t … Read More
Training the Brain to Maintain Attention
A study underway at I-LABS uses neurofeedback to help train the brain to maintain attention while reading. Upon receiving her ADHD diagnosis at age 17, Marissa Pighin remembers her first interaction with her doctor as, “‘I’ll write you a ‘script and send you out the door.’” Pighin, now 22 and a UW psychology honors student, thought that there must be … Read More
New Paper in Influential Journal: Defining Auditory-Visual Objects
If you’ve ever been at a crowded bar, you may notice that it’s easier to hear your friend if you watch his face and mouth movements. And if you want to pick out the melody of the first violin in a string quartet, it helps to watch the strokes of the player’s bow. I-LABS faculty member Adrian KC Lee and … Read More
New I-LABS Faculty Member: Brain Readiness for Learning to Read
Learning to read—like learning to speak—requires hard work, practice and sophisticated wiring of the brain. A literate brain must first recognize the visual pattern of letters, convert them into sounds which are combined into words that are then made sense of. Once learned reading happens in the blink of an eye and requires little effort. “Reading is so effortless that … Read More
I-LABS Modules on National List of Early Literacy Resources
The I-LABS Outreach Training Modules have been included in a national list of early literacy resources compiled by the nonprofit think tank New America and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. Designed as an interactive map, “Integrating Technology in Early Literacy” is meant to show the scope of how technology is being used by early learning programs. It … Read More
What Black Adolescents Say about Stereotypes
What does it mean to be young, Black and male? In what ways do Black male youths accommodate and resist the social stereotypes of their demographic? And how does this shape Black boys’ development of their own identity, and who they become? These are among the questions Onnie Rogers explored with Black urban teenagers in a recently published paper in … Read More