Babies don't fumble

Bente Haarstad
Photo: Jens Søraa

"Babies can't be given instructions during the research, but they obviously like to show what they are capable of," says Audrey van der Meer. She uses highly advanced technology for the baby research at NTNU.

"Most people think that babies fumble and they don't know what babies are actually capable of," says Professor Audrey van der Meer of the Department of Psychology. "When babies are just four months old, they will gladly catch a fast moving object. Previously people didn't think that children gained this capability until they were five or six years old."

Advanced technology

In other words, the human newborn is considerably better equipped than people previously realized. With the help of advanced technology, researchers at NTNU's Department of Psychology measure and analyse fine motoric capabilities in babies.

The video camera in the Neuropsychology Development Laboratory is not used to capture sweet baby smiles but to digitalize movement and provide figures. Among other things, the infrared camera measures the movements of small arms and legs, while magnetic "trackers" continuously record where they are in the room. The results of all this measuring will be used for many purposes, especially the early detection of development problems.

"Glugg, glugg," gabbles a satisfied baby in the special research laboratory in Trondheim. Eight-month-old Kristen scarcely knows she is a research subject so, at that rate, she doesn't have the slightest resistance to the challenge. Swiftly and purposefully, she grasps the toy, which suddenly pops up in front of her. A contented, enormous smile shows that the task was understood and accomplished with satisfaction.

Premature births

Audrey van der Meer and her team have conducted advanced research with babies from an age of just one or two weeks. She will soon begin research with prematurely born babies. Babies who weigh as little as a bag of sugar when they are born are at great risk of brain damage. The majority develop normally, but an increasing number develop cerebral palsy or other problems.

"Children with mild to moderate brain damage aren't normally diagnosed until they are at least two years old, but we believe motoric problems can already be detected at four months," reports van der Meer. "Early detection is very important. These children need stimulating, physical training and extra attention."

The expanding groups of researchers who are directing their attention to neuropsychology at NTNU have received a great deal of purpose-built equipment normally used in other connections.

"The same methods are employed when the army measures exact positions or when vehicles are used on the moon," she says. "Our research also has to do with position in space, speed and acceleration." In addition, Van der Meer researches more fundamental things, which will determine a child's ability to crawl, reach and grasp, sit up and walk.

Like a mouse

Van der Meer is also working on a larger project concerning the use of the right versus left hand for tasks. Resembling mice, babies use both their right and left hands equally, but only up to a certain point.

According to her interpretation of the results of the first few weeks of the study, whether a child will be right or left handed is established from an age of 10 to 12 months.

"Nowadays it doesn't matter so much which hand we use, but for people like us who are trying to understand the brain, this is interesting information," van der Meer says. It is not just hands which are dominant, the researchers are using questionnaires to find out more about people's dominant foot, ear and eye as well.

Does the study about children's general motoric capabilities imply that parents should activate their children more?

"In our part of the world, it's not common to interfere in a child's development. Many actually believe that the child will develop problems later in life if they try to teach the child to crawl, sit, walk and use a potty."

In Africa, on the other hand, mothers handle their babies a lot more and it appears as though the babies become stronger as a result. But the aim, of course, isn't that everyone will raise Olympic athletes. The most important aspect of early activity is that the first few months become happier and more enjoyable for all concerned.

"The first five or six months can provide so much more than hard work, disrupted sleep and changing nappies," says the researcher whose own six-month-old baby comes to work with her. And, like the other babies, he has nothing against being a research guinea pig once in a while.

Contact at NTNU: Audrey van der Meer
Tel: +47 73 59 74 88
E-mail: audrey.meer@sv.ntnu.no