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CNN Live At Daybreak
What Does Velcro Have to Do With a Baby's Learning Development?
Aired November 01, 2002 - 05:58 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to get a little bit technical for the moment, especially for this hour of the day. What do you think Velcro has to do with a baby's learning development?
CNN's Ann Kellan makes the connection.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Something very interesting happens when Velcro gets in the hands of three month olds. They get a little bit smarter about the world around them.
(on camera): So is Velcro a big part of your life?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have no idea.
KELLAN (voice-over): Velcro, on shoes, bags, key chains, toys, an easy catch with a Velcro mitt. It works for big kids, why not infants? Before their tiny fingers and thumbs can hold onto a block, it sticks to the Velcro mitt, making infants more fascinated with objects sooner than they normally would be. Maybe it's because infants have more control over the object.
Usually at this stage of life infants focus on faces, not objects. But once the blocks stick to their mitt...
PROF. AMY NEEDHAM, DUKE UNIVERSITY: They looked at objects more.
KELLAN: It only takes a week or two for these results. Leeann (ph) and Johnny, for example, wore Velcro mitts 15 minutes a day for a week. Before Needham and her team videotaped them, gloves on, then gloves off, playing with an object in a bouncy seat. They count how many times the infants look and touch the object compared to infants who have never worn the Velcro mitt.
NEEDHAM: Here's a baby who didn't have the experience with the mittens at home.
KELLAN: She's less interested in objects, more focused on faces.
NEEDHAM: But she's looking sometimes at the experimenters.
KELLAN: Is being more object oriented a good thing?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not like he's looking at objects to the exclusion of people. It's just that he's looking at objects, too. NEEDHAM: It's hard to say exactly what the benefits are. You know, some might argue that learning more about objects earlier would just sort of give them a head start in learning about the physical world around them.
KELLAN: And Velcro mitts might help those who have trouble grasping. Does that mean all infants should don Velcro mittens?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think that, you know, your baby is just not complete without experience with these mittens.
KELLAN (on camera): This is starting them young on Velcro, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Plus we, you know, to baby-sit them, you put a little bit of Velcro there and stick it to the wall.
KELLAN: Ann Kellan, CNN, Durham, North Carolina.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Development?>
Aired November 1, 2002 - 05:58 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to get a little bit technical for the moment, especially for this hour of the day. What do you think Velcro has to do with a baby's learning development?
CNN's Ann Kellan makes the connection.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Something very interesting happens when Velcro gets in the hands of three month olds. They get a little bit smarter about the world around them.
(on camera): So is Velcro a big part of your life?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have no idea.
KELLAN (voice-over): Velcro, on shoes, bags, key chains, toys, an easy catch with a Velcro mitt. It works for big kids, why not infants? Before their tiny fingers and thumbs can hold onto a block, it sticks to the Velcro mitt, making infants more fascinated with objects sooner than they normally would be. Maybe it's because infants have more control over the object.
Usually at this stage of life infants focus on faces, not objects. But once the blocks stick to their mitt...
PROF. AMY NEEDHAM, DUKE UNIVERSITY: They looked at objects more.
KELLAN: It only takes a week or two for these results. Leeann (ph) and Johnny, for example, wore Velcro mitts 15 minutes a day for a week. Before Needham and her team videotaped them, gloves on, then gloves off, playing with an object in a bouncy seat. They count how many times the infants look and touch the object compared to infants who have never worn the Velcro mitt.
NEEDHAM: Here's a baby who didn't have the experience with the mittens at home.
KELLAN: She's less interested in objects, more focused on faces.
NEEDHAM: But she's looking sometimes at the experimenters.
KELLAN: Is being more object oriented a good thing?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not like he's looking at objects to the exclusion of people. It's just that he's looking at objects, too. NEEDHAM: It's hard to say exactly what the benefits are. You know, some might argue that learning more about objects earlier would just sort of give them a head start in learning about the physical world around them.
KELLAN: And Velcro mitts might help those who have trouble grasping. Does that mean all infants should don Velcro mittens?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think that, you know, your baby is just not complete without experience with these mittens.
KELLAN (on camera): This is starting them young on Velcro, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Plus we, you know, to baby-sit them, you put a little bit of Velcro there and stick it to the wall.
KELLAN: Ann Kellan, CNN, Durham, North Carolina.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Development?>
