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Measuring naturalistic proximity as a window into caregiver-child interaction patterns.

ABSTRACT: The interactions most supportive of positive child development take place in moments of close contact with others. In the earliest years of life, a child's caregivers are the primary partners in these important interactions. Little is known about the patterns of real-life physical interactions between children and their caregivers, in part due to an inability to measure these interactions as they occur in real time. We have developed a wearable, infrastructure-free device (TotTag) used to dynamically and unobtrusively measure physical proximity between children and caregivers in real time. We present a case-study illustration of the TotTag with data collected over two (12-hour) days each from two families: a family of four (30-month-old son, 61-month-old daughter, 37-year-old father, 37-year-old mother), and a family of three (12-month-old daughter, 35-year-old-father, 33-year-old mother). We explored patterns of proximity within each parent-child dyad and whether close proximity would indicate periods in which increased opportunity for developmentally critical interactions occur. Each child also wore a widely used wearable audio recording device (LENA) to collect time-synced linguistic input. Descriptive analyses reveal wide variability in caregiver-child proximity both within and across dyads, and that the amount of time spent in close proximity with a caregiver is associated with the number of adult words and conversational turns to which a child was exposed. This suggests that variations in proximity are linked to-though, critically, not synonymous with-the quantity of a child's exposure to adult language. Potential implications for deepening the understanding of early caregiver-child interactions are discussed.

SUBMITTER: Salo VC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8907335 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Measuring naturalistic proximity as a window into caregiver-child interaction patterns.

Salo Virginia C VC Pannuto Pat P Hedgecock William W Biri Andreas A Russo David A DA Piersiak Hannah A HA Humphreys Kathryn L KL

Behavior research methods 20210910 4

The interactions most supportive of positive child development take place in moments of close contact with others. In the earliest years of life, a child's caregivers are the primary partners in these important interactions. Little is known about the patterns of real-life physical interactions between children and their caregivers, in part due to an inability to measure these interactions as they occur in real time. We have developed a wearable, infrastructure-free device (TotTag) used to dynami ...[more]

PMID: 34505995

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Project description:BACKGROUND: Nosocomial infections place a substantial burden on health care systems and represent one of the major issues in current public health, requiring notable efforts for its prevention. Understanding the dynamics of infection transmission in a hospital setting is essential for tailoring interventions and predicting the spread among individuals. Mathematical models need to be informed with accurate data on contacts among individuals. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We used wearable active Radio-Frequency Identification Devices (RFID) to detect face-to-face contacts among individuals with a spatial resolution of about 1.5 meters, and a time resolution of 20 seconds. The study was conducted in a general pediatrics hospital ward, during a one-week period, and included 119 participants, with 51 health care workers, 37 patients, and 31 caregivers. Nearly 16,000 contacts were recorded during the study period, with a median of approximately 20 contacts per participants per day. Overall, 25% of the contacts involved a ward assistant, 23% a nurse, 22% a patient, 22% a caregiver, and 8% a physician. The majority of contacts were of brief duration, but long and frequent contacts especially between patients and caregivers were also found. In the setting under study, caregivers do not represent a significant potential for infection spread to a large number of individuals, as their interactions mainly involve the corresponding patient. Nurses would deserve priority in prevention strategies due to their central role in the potential propagation paths of infections. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows the feasibility of accurate and reproducible measures of the pattern of contacts in a hospital setting. The obtained results are particularly useful for the study of the spread of respiratory infections, for monitoring critical patterns, and for setting up tailored prevention strategies. Proximity-sensing technology should be considered as a valuable tool for measuring such patterns and evaluating nosocomial prevention strategies in specific settings.

Project description:BackgroundAutism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder that affects individuals across their lifespan. Early diagnosis and intervention are crucial for improving outcomes. However, current diagnostic methods are often time-consuming, and costly, making them inaccessible to many families. In the current study, we aim to test caregiver-child interaction as a potential tool for screening children with ASD in clinic.MethodsWe enrolled 85 preschool children (Mean age: 4.90 ± 0.65 years, 70.6% male), including ASD children with or without developmental delay (DD), and typical development (TD) children, along with their caregivers. ASD core symptoms were evaluated by Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Calibrated Severity Scores (ADOS-CSS). Behavioral indicators were derived from video encoding of caregiver-child interaction, including social involvement of children (SIC), interaction time (IT), response of children to social cues (RSC), time for caregiver initiated social interactions (GIS) and time for children initiated social interactions (CIS)). Power spectral density (PSD) values were calculated by EEG signals simultaneously recorded. Partial Pearson correlation analysis was used in both ASD groups to investigate the correlation among behavioral indicators scores and ASD symptom severity and PSD values. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to describe the discrimination accuracy of behavioral indicators.ResultsCompared to TD group, both ASD groups demonstrated significant lower scores of SIC, IT, RSC, CIS (all p values < 0.05), and significant higher time for GIS (all p values < 0.01). SIC scores negatively correlated with CARS (p = 0.006) and ADOS-CSS (p = 0.023) in the ASD with DD group. Compared to TD group, PSD values elevated in ASD groups (all p values < 0.05), and was associated with SIC (theta band: p = 0.005; alpha band: p = 0.003) but not IQ levels. SIC was effective in identifying both ASD groups (sensitivity/specificity: ASD children with DD, 76.5%/66.7%; ASD children without DD, 82.6%/82.2%).ConclusionOur results verified the behavioral paradigm of caregiver-child interaction as an efficient tool for early ASD screening.

Dataset Information

Measuring naturalistic proximity as a window into caregiver-child interaction patterns.

Publications

Measuring naturalistic proximity as a window into caregiver-child interaction patterns.

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