The Duck is "Cradding"

Sounds funny, doesn't it? We got a call about a week ago from the Psychology Dept at the U of I. We're not sure how they knew that we had an infant, but they called us none the less. Matter of fact, they didn't even know how they got our number. The only association they have is with the Infant Cognition Lab, but we have never taken Madalyn there either. Who knows.

They invited us to do a study on recognition, so we took Mady over there yesterday. We walked in, and while Jenn was filling out all the waivers and pertinent documents, Mady had a blast with the 3 college girls who cooed over her and played toys with her. She liked this little vibrating duck, where you pull the string and it hops around on the floor. She also played with Little People and some plastic food.

For the study, one of the gals took Mady and I next door where we were seated in a chair. The room was pretty dark and Mady sat on my lap. The idea was they were going to see how she learns and responds to a new words. "Crad" was the new word they were going to teach her. They put these black-out sunglasses on me so that I can't help Mady, or give subconscious indicators to her what the right answer should be.

Then they start a video on these 2 screens next to each other. This woman's soothing voice starts saying over and over again, "The duck is cradding. The duck just cradded. The duck is cradding." Evidently, one of the screens had this duck doing something that they say was "cradding." (Again, I don't know what it was.) Then, after about a minute of this, they switch and the video asks "Which duck is cradding?" Both TVs show different things, and Madalyn is asked to communicate which duck is cradding. And somehow, they watch to see what Madalyn will do. I know she was looking back and forth, I'm not sure if she pointed or smiled or what not. After about a minute of this, it was over and we were able to join Jenn next door.

Madalyn played some more with toys and for her involvement, she got a free book of her choice. We ventured back out into the current snow storm, and headed home. They will keep us on file, and they study kids up until the age of 3. It was fun, it would be nice to read the final thesis to see their findings.