Current Projects
Completing the loop with Baby X
Harnessing a novel interactive experimental tool to uncover how infants' communicative signals shape caregiver's interactive responses
This is a collaboration with A/Prof Annette Henderson, University of Auckland and Prof. Mark Sagar, Soul Machines.
Baby X is a hyper-realistic computer-generated psychobiological simulation of a human infant. Using Baby X we are exploring the ways in which caregivers scaffold their responsiveness to variations in Baby X’s behavior. By being able to manipulate the contingency and time of Baby X’s communicative cues, we hope to understand how caregivers make adjustments to maintain the bidirectional “interaction loops” that characterize early caregiver interactions.
Funded by Royal Society of New Zealand, Marsden Fund
Could Would Should
Could, Would, Should: Integrating Mentalistic and Deontic Stances into a Theory of Social Understanding
This is a collaboration with Dr ‘Ungatea Kata, Tupou Tertiary Institute, and Heti Veikune, University of the South Pacific, Tonga Campus
In this project we challenge prevailing developmental theory of children’s socio-cognitive understanding by looking at alternative pathways for understanding social behavior that better accommodate the diversity of cultural experiences. In three groups of children from New Zealand, Malaysia and Tonga, we test children’s ability to use norms, rules and obligations to successfully reason about social behavior. We analyze features of caregiver conversation that predict this form of reasoning and examine the ways in which parents’ transmit cultural mandates through their socialization goals for children.
Funded by Royal Society of New Zealand, Marsden Fund
Examining the Impact of Parent-Child Interactions on the Social Understanding of Autistic Children in India
This is a collaboration with Dr Sharanya Anil, Founder-Director, DIRECT - a centre for therapy and rehabilitation across life-span, Chennai, India and Dr Hannah Waddington, Senior Lecturer, School of Education, Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Led by Apoorva Sriram, a PhD researcher at the School of Psychology, Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington, this is one of a kind research project being undertaken within the Indian context.
Project Manobhaava is a 3-part series particularly curated to uncover the power of parent-child interactions for children with autism (4-8 years) and discover how these moments foster their understanding and connection with the world and aims to develop effective solutions to support caregiver-autistic child dyads in India. Incorporating an exploratory mixed-methods approach, Phase 1 aims to identify the different ways in which primary caregivers and their autistic children interact with each other. Phase 2 will help us understand how these interactions take place real-time through observations and interviews. Our learnings from phases 1 and 2 will lead us to phase 3, where we aim to develop a culturally relevant support program to promote positive caregiver-autistic child interactions among our dyads. These interactions we believe can be significant to their relationship, reduce parenting stress, improve parenting-self efficacy and aid children's developing social understanding.
AU Pacific Child Wellbeing Project
The study was motivated by a review of the Well Child Tamariki Ora Programme which identified inequities and failings for Pacific children and their families. The three-year study will reframe the B4 School Well Child checks by drawing on families’ natural aspirations for children to succeed at school and build on Pacific culture and identity. This project is lead by Dr Teuila Percival, Director of Moana Research and Paediatrician at KidzFirst Middlemore Hospital.
Funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand
Kia Tīmata Pai (Best Start):
A study protocol for a cluster randomized trial with early childhood teachers to support children's oral language and self-regulation development
Lead by Prof. Elaine Reese, University of Otago
This study’s goal is to evaluate the effectiveness of training programmes designed to enhance children’s (1.5 years – 5 years) oral language and self-regulation skills. Taking place in around 140 Best Start preschool centers, this cluster randomized controlled trial includes a where language enriched intervention, a self-regulation intervention or both, and an active control condition. The goal of the study is to understand the separate and combined effectiveness of each condition on children’s later language development.
Connected: Who benefits from online delivery of mental disorder treatment?
Lead by Dr Charlene Rapsey, University of Otago
Early treatment of mental disorders is essential to reduce suffering and to decrease early mortality. Most prevalent among rangatahi aged 16-24, untreated mental disorder affects relationships, education, and career options. The need for treatment far exceeds resources, with rangatahi Māori less likely to be engaged in treatment. Culturally responsive, online therapies are a cost-effective scalable option to meet the high level of need. Using a pragmatic RCT we will test three internet-therapies (iStandard, iCoach, iGroup), which vary according to external support and strengthening of whakawhanaungatanga. We will recruit rangatahi enrolled in tertiary education. Beyond evaluating which therapy works best overall for Māori and non-Māori, we will use machine learning techniques to understand who is most likely to respond to which treatment. Precision treatment enables an individual to be directed to a treatment with the greatest likelihood of success for them, reducing treatment failure and reducing time to remission.
Funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand
Early childhood teacher practices for supporting oral language acquisition and competency for children from Pacific heritages
This project uses a multiple case-study design to investigate how EC teachers’ practices and interactions can effectively support oral language acquisition and learning for mono-lingual, bi-lingual and multi-lingual children from Pacific heritages. The project is a collaboration between researchers from Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, University of Waikato, Massey University and four EC centre teaching teams: A'oga Amata EFKS Newtown, Matiti Tokelau Akoga Kamata and Moera and Waiwhetu Kindergartens from Hutt City Kindergartens. Each centre serves diverse communities, enabling the project to pay particular attention to teachers’ practices working with children who bring diverse linguistic knowledge and experience.