Aisyah Volunteering at Baby Lab

On Friday, Aisyah had an appointment with the Baby Lab at University of Plymouth. Baby Lab ni adalah salah satu lab drpd School of Psychology utk study mcm2 hal perihal babies, and I have given Aisyah's name down as a volunteer. Bkn apa, tp sbb studies yg dibuat ni adalah sgt2 best, and I guess if it's in the name of science, apa lah salahnya kan? I myself pon dah berpuluh2 kali jd participants (paid plak tu, GBP3 setengah jam.. best ooo). Depending on the studies, buat la apa2 yg disuruh, spt tgk speed of respond kita ke, facial expression ke, even dah pernah pon pakai EEG cap tu (free hair you, tp dgn female reserach assistant la, lps tu dia siap bg free hair washing services tau, gile ganas lab EEG ni ada tempat basuh rambut yg kerusi baring ada sinki tuh spt di salon2 biasa!).

Ok enough about aku, psl observation studies yg dia nak wat kat Aisyah ni adalah berkaitan dgn 'Speech Development in Bilingual Children'. Fuhhh... best gile la research psychology nih. Kenapa la aku x amik psychology dulu, amik PhD in Child Psychology kan best. Instead, duk buat Music Signal Processing. Ggrrr!

Anyway, the study sungguh kena la dgn Aisyah kan, coz she is exposed to both Malay and English. Mula2 aku kena isi the Mac Arthur CDI (Communicative Development Inventory) yg diorg hntr melalui email. CDI ni adalah panduan kosa kata yg sepatutnya babies age 16 - 30 months tahu. Ada dlm 400++ words gitu. Ada byk kategori, from 'Animals' (e.g. Duck, Dog, Cat....), to 'Toys' (e.g. Balloon, Ball, Teddy...), to 'Food' (e.g. Cookies, Banana, Apple, Biscuits....), to 'Body Parts' (e.g. Mouth, Nose, Bellybutton...), and many, many more! Jenuh tau nak isi. If any of you Mommies nak tgk list tu, let me know, I will email it to you.

Ada dua column, satu utk perkataan yg diorg FAHAM, dan satu column lagi utk perkataan yg diorg bole SEBUT. For every words yg babies ni faham, kita bagi tick and bagi 1 markah. Same goes utk perkataan yg babies ni bole sebut. So in the end, add up, then get the percentage and compare it to the tables below (different tau boys and girls).





BUT....! only words in English aje that counts tau. So, for instance, Aisyah faham 'Bantal' in Malay, but sbb x pernah guna perkataan 'Pillow', then kena regard as TAK FAHAM. Haaa.... like that tau.... Aiyoo... semasa mengisi Index tu, mmg rasa bykkkkkkk sgt perkataan yg Aisyah dah faham, tp in Malay. Aisyah dah bole sebut byk jg perkataan, but then again it is also in Malay, so x dikira lah. Tinggal things yg mcm sama Malay and English tu je la yg ok, like 'Bicycle', 'Vacuum', 'Book', 'Ball', 'Duvet', 'TV', 'Remote Control', 'Shampoo', 'Pasta', 'Pizza', 'High chair', 'Sofa', 'No', 'Yes', etc.

Mula la rasa x syok sbb byk nya kena tanda as TAK FAHAM. Huhu... tp x pe, sebenarnya ada kajian dah prove dah utk anak2 yg Bilingual or even Multilingual, kena utamakan Bahasa Ibunda dahulu. Selagi bahasa Ibunda tu x dpt grasp sepenuhnya, jgn ajar dulu bahasa2 lain, nanti lg lambat anak2 tu nak bercakap, because it can create confusion in their little mind. Berpegang pada tu, aku x heran sgt la nak ajar English pada Aisyah. She's already picking it up from the TV anyways, and we are sending her to nursery soon, so she should be able to slowly learn English on her own in due time. Aku dulu pon mcm tu gak masa kecik2 and my Dad was doing his BSc and MSc kat USA. Gi kindy ckp omputih, balik kecek kelate lg mung. Jadi org je... heheh...

Ok berbalik pada kisah Baby Lab tu, lab tu mmg baby-friendly, Aisyah bebas to roam around main apa sahaja yg dia suka. After dah isi CDI tu, kitaorg pon start la isi questionnaire psl Aisyah. Brp % dia exposed to English words dlm sehari? Siapa jaga dia all day? What language does the carer speaks to Aisyah? How many hours a week does Aisyah mix with English-speaking children? How many hours a day does she sleep? Does she have hearing impairment? Was she borne prematurely? Blah blah blah... byk you allsssss... Pengsan nak jawab!

After all that gruesome questionnaire, kitaorg dibawa masuk ke bilik testing la. Bilik dia mcm theatre sket, ada skrin besar tunjuk citer kartun (nanti dia akan tunjuk gmbr objek2 bila testing dah start). The idea is that they will present two objects, e.g. Cat and Spoon, and if the speaker says ckp 'Cat', the baby should look at the Cat's picture first. The eye movement will be tracked by the camera. That is to indicate understandingness la.

So imagine my 'geramness' when after all that, Aisyah bole plak x mo participate. ish ish... Sbbnya, she needed to be strapped onto a carseat, and faced the screen. Berkali2 cuba, tp dia x nak, menangis. Maybe sbb gelap, maybe sbb kena restrain. Last2 give up je la. Researcher tu ckp, 'It's normal. That's how it is with children, you can't force it onto them. Out of 48 children I've tested, only 20 or so has been successful'.

Nasib baik la gitu. Idak la teman malu sgt. But to think after all that. Aiseh... Tp sbb dah dtg kan, dia bg je la sehelai T-Shirt, sekeping certificate 'Baby Scientist Award' utk Aisyah, and sebijik belon. Lps tu Aisyah got to play for another quarter of an hour dkt ruang legar Baby Lab tu. Hmmm... sayang x dpt nak contribute. I really would have liked to know how Aisyah measures up with the rest of the Bilingual Kids. Oh well... it doesn't matter. As long as she's developing happy, I am happy. Mmg la dia happy sbb dpt spent the whole day with Ibu dia. Tu yg kena dtg lab even on a Saturday ni. Ganti ponteng keja on Friday hehe...


[1] Ruang legar Baby Lab





[2] Suruh main, Aisyah main...







[3] Suruh lukis, Aisyah lukis...





[4] Suruh wat test, Aisyah tak mahu! Uwaaaa!!!



[5] Tp belon, T-Shirt dan Sijil tetap Aisyah amik.. hehe