Still searching

As my babies slept peacefully at naptime today, after I cleaned the classroom and finished the paperwork for the day, I settled into the rocking chair with my newest copy of Scientific American Mind- the SA magazine for psychology. No, we're not really supposed to read magazines during nap, but my work was finished, and it's no worse than what other teachers do with their free time during nap! While I was browsing a particular article of interest, about mimicking and how it helps humans learn empathy as well as language and motor skills, I realized that I still have to com up with a research proposal for my friends at the University of Calgary! In this task, I am completely stumped. All I know is that I want to study language and how we learned it. My original proposal was to do a longitudinal study (one where the subjects come back to the lab for several expirimental runs over long periods of time) on infants learning sign language. There are several products on the market now making great claims about the advantages to teaching infants sign language. "Baby signs" is the biggest, and most profitable, trends in child care and parenting. Boxes of various systems claim in big letters "give your child a headstart in language, math, and social skills!" pretty bold claims for a technique that has had very little research.

My personal experience is that baby signs slightly reduces the frustration of pre-verbal communication. It reduced the number of biting incidents significantly in my classroom two years ago. And the children who were exposed to baby signs early in infancy did seem to have a head start in social and verbal skills (although I have yet to see evidence of enhanced math skills!) However, the scientist in me cannot proclaim that these advancements came from the miracle of baby signs- it could have been a number of things! My research proposal was to put the baby signs to the test. I proposed that expecting mothers and fathers , about 7 months along, come in for an hour training session on how to use baby signs effectively, and a review session shortly after the infants are born. A control group would just come in for a regular parenting class. Then I'd send surveys concerning the child's developmental growth. Sounds simple, right? WRONG. The problem here is subject numbers and subject retention. Also, because I would have little to no control over a LOT of factors, I still wouldn't be able to say much about baby signs. I think this would be a great probing expiriment, to spur new research on the matter, but the greatest problem would be how to get enough pregnant mothers to come in for that initial class, and then stick with it for the entire two years?! Needless to say, that got a big fat XXX from my advisor.

And now I'm stuck for what to study. I'd like to stick to the baby signs, but not sure of a better way to go about it. This is probably why there has only been one other study done on the subject, and that was 24 years ago! Since it's so prominant, and because people are spending a LOT of money on this, I'd like to test it out in a lab! If anyone has any bright ideas, fling them my way!

Other topics I am thinking about: bilingual children and social development (code switching etc), literacy and public school curriculum (how language is used/taught in the classroom), and socio-economic class effect on standardized tests (why it occurs and what can be done about it... besides what I think should be done about it cuz it won't ever happen)

In other news: I blew bubbles today, and got paid for it. This job is so much better than the pizza shop. (even when the free pizza is taken into consideration!)