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Science

'Sticky Mittens' Give Babies A Head Start 42

Posted by timothy from the some-babies-grab-early dept.
Tammy Tieu writes "Duke University psychologists have discovered that fitting infants with Velcro-covered 'sticky mittens' gives them a developmental jump start in learning to explore objects. The researchers placed the mittens on infants too young to actually grasp objects, but the mittens allowed the infants to snag Velcro-fitted toys merely by swiping at them. In comparisons with infants who hadn't used the mittens, found the psychologists, those who had used the mitten subsequently showed more sophisticated abilities to explore objects."
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'Sticky Mittens' Give Babies A Head Start More

'Sticky Mittens' Give Babies A Head Start

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  • Reasonable study (Score:5, Insightful)

    by BigDaddy ( 28409 ) on Thursday September 26, 2002 @06:20PM (#4340034)
    I'm glad to see that this study isn't claiming more than it logically can. From the article,

    "There could have been a cognitive difference, in that the babies with the mittens received more experience in being an actor on the world and being able to produce observable consequences that created the differences," she said. "Or, it could have been that just the extra attention the mitten-using babies received from the parents -- perhaps motivating them to pay attention to objects or systematically bringing the babies' attention to objects."

    This was the first thing that popped into my mind when I read the brief. In fact, I would have said a better method would have been to use three groups to control for parental interaction.

    • Group One: This group would have the sticky mittens and the 10-minute per day regimine.
    • Group Two: This group would have similar toys and similar instructions to parents for interaction, but without the mittens.
    • Group Three: This group would have neither of the above. Purely control.
    I think the results for such a study would be much more externally valid. This study would have really benefitted from controlling for the variable of parental interaction.
    • Isn't your "Group Three" every other baby not involved in this study? A natural control? Also, your proposal studies something already thoroughly studied--that active interaction with parents improves cognition and development [psy.utu.fi].

      Mittens YES vs. Mittens NO limits the confounding variables, but they have to allot for time spent on mitten-interaction, hence their caveat.

  • I did this with my kids (Score:4, Funny)

    by Henry V .009 ( 518000 ) on Thursday September 26, 2002 @06:24PM (#4340046) Journal
    They wound up with their hands stuck together for most of childhood. Did wonders for my peace of mind.

  • Hmmm.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by xagon7 ( 530399 ) on Thursday September 26, 2002 @06:26PM (#4340064)
    And when does evolution kick in and allow these youngsters the ability to "grow" velcro?

    They need to learn what they HAVE. I can just imagine 25,000 people walking around the world with Velcro on their hands because of their inability to use their REAL digits!

    sheesh.

    • Re:Hmmm.... (Score:2, Funny)

      by Jerf ( 17166 )
      And when does evolution kick in and allow these youngsters the ability to "grow" velcro?

      After being bitten by a genetically engineered radioactive super-spider, of course!

      I mean, come on! Duh! Get an education!
  • While it's certainly an interesting concept, it would have just made my daughter pissed off. She hated having anything on her hands, even when she was to young for them to be of any use.

    That may have changed if the mittens allowed her to do something she would otherwise be able to, as is the case here, but I wouldn't bet on it.

    At 2.5 years she doesn't seem to have any difficulty exploring the world, though (except maybe the height thing).

  • A new generation.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by perlyking ( 198166 ) on Thursday September 26, 2002 @06:32PM (#4340126) Homepage
    ...of kids too lazy to even close their hands :-)
    • A new generation of kids too lazy to even close their hands.

      This bring up a valid point. The ability to grasp and manipulate objects is a crucial motor skill for children to comprehend. Giving an infant velcro gloves is the equivalent of handing a first-grader a calculator before a math quiz. Sure, they may finish faster and more accurately, but they do so by taking a developmental shortcut.

      This is not a good thing.

      • Giving an infant velcro gloves is the equivalent of handing a first-grader a calculator before a math quiz. Sure, they may finish faster and more accurately, but they do so by taking a developmental shortcut.

        Which is why you let a kid play with a calculator (or the gloves) for a while, but not all the time.

  • So you're saying that you can bypass learning to grip and get to learning to manipulat objects...but learning to grip is kind of important too, you know?
    • I believe the study was trying to determine whether the "Interact With Objects" part of the brain developes before the "Grip/Grab Objects" part of the brain.

      Potential for an interesting study on evolution/development if you were to compare infant humans w/ infant primates.

  • sounds good (Score:3, Funny)

    by tps12 ( 105590 ) on Thursday September 26, 2002 @07:00PM (#4340335) Homepage Journal
    Just remember to take them off before the kids hit puberty and discover the allure of pornography. Ouch.

    Seriously, I hope the scientists at least let the babies climb on the walls and ceiling.

    Yes, that's two jokes for the price of one, folks. I do it cuz I love ya. Move along.
  • ...to our good friends, the Vulcans.
    • to our good friends, the Vulcans

      Yes, my thoughts exactly. In last week's Enterprise episode, when T'Pol's great-grandmum sells a sample of Velcro to a patent attorney, the buyer refers to it as a product that will revolutionize the world. Since prior to this I would not have considered Velcro to have "revolutionized the world" the comment must have been referring to this research. Once all human babies are started on this regimen, we will achieve the understanding of physics necessary to one day build a warp drive.

  • So when all these kids grow up to have velcro fetishes, who are we going to blame? Hmm on the other hand, maybe its not to early to register StickyVelcroXXX.com and make some money off this.
  • [the researchers] plan further studies to explore the causes of the enhanced abilities of the mitten-fitted babies.

    Sounds like an opener for a new movie: "X-Babies"
  • "...those who had used the mitten subsequently showed more sophisticated abilities to explore objects..."

    ...climb walls, cling to sheep, stick to other babies...
  • Hate to say this, but we have a 4-month old, and all he does is hang onto the breast and eat. Oh, and sleep. Tools are WAY outside his grasp, no pun intended. Swatting at things is way outside his grasp. How are these kids doing this at that age?

    • Re:Advanced kids? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by baldass_newbie ( 136609 ) on Thursday September 26, 2002 @10:46PM (#4341448) Homepage Journal
      I don't know. My daughter is 4 months old, too. She does swat and can grab things (she grabbed the 'teething keys' in the Neglect-O-Matic the other day - I was astounded.) But it's not like she does anything with it other than stick it in her mouth and even that's a recent development.
      Nothing like: "other researchers had found evidence that infants between 2 and 5 months of age are developing strategies for exploring objects, like switching between visual and oral exploration"
      I mean, you might think you're seeing it, but, really, how much of that is the kid just doing something and how much of it is the psychologist ascribing it to them?

    • My daughter is 10 months old now but I think 4 months is when she started batting at things. At first it didn't seem like she was doing much but flailing her arm randomly but after a while she was definitely swinging at things.

      Oral exploration takes a while though. It requires that the kid be able to get her hands to her mouth.

  • Ehm, I have to constantly cut the fingernails of my 2-month old to stop him scratching his face...

    wouldn't a velcro mitten be like sticking wire a scouring pad to his hands?

  • For my current 10 month old, when he was 4 months, this would have been a *HUGE* problem.

    All little boys at this age start, um, exploring their, um, parts.

    I would have hated to forget to take the gloves off at changing time :-)

  • At first I thought they were some new gloves for the doctors to get a better grip on the kid on the way out.

    Wasn't exactly sure how that transferred to child development..

  • A) Infants with velcro mittens can now work in important airport security screening jobs. Making them productive taxpaying citizens much sooner after birth. or B) This is cool, but have we determined that infant development as it is, is not healthy? Perhaps the time lag to develop motor skills before exploring your enviromnent was an important factor. C) Velcro Mittens can also be used for people on medication who can't hold onto pencils.
  • I have invented a tool to help children at early ages learn biology and chemistry. This will help them manipulate it.It's genetically engineered. It's called the Wooly Scorpion.
  • Anyone else notice that this post is in the same category as "violent games good for kids"? Maybe we need fuzzy Playstation controllers so they can learn to play GTAIII?
  • They should try putting velcro socks on the little tikes. Turn them into little mokeys, grabbing things with their feet.

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