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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 16, 2025

Quantifying Learning in Young Infants: Tracking Leg Actions During a Discovery-learning Task

Quantifying Learning in Young Infants: Tracking Leg Actions During a Discovery-learning Task

Published on: June 1, 2015

Locomotion development and infants' object interaction in a day-care environment.

Noriko Toyama¹

¹School of Human Sciences, Waseda University, Tokorozawa, Japan.

Infancy : the Official Journal of the International Society on Infant Studies

|December 22, 2022

Summary

As infants develop locomotion, their object interactions shift. Walking infants engage more socially, driven by social stimuli, unlike crawlers who are more object-oriented.

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Area of Science:

Developmental Psychology
Infant Behavior
Social Interaction

Background:

Locomotion development is a critical milestone in infancy.
Understanding the interplay between motor skills and social engagement is crucial for child development research.
Previous studies have not fully explored how the emergence of independent locomotion influences social interactions involving objects.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the longitudinal relationship between the development of infant locomotion and their social interactions centered around objects.
To differentiate object-oriented versus socially-driven behaviors in infants at different stages of locomotor development.
To examine the impact of caregiver presence on infant social interactions during locomotion development.

Main Methods:

A longitudinal observational study was conducted over one year with 13 infants and 7 caregivers in a Japanese day-care setting.
Infants' manual contact with objects and pre-contact movements were recorded.
Social interactions, including bidirectional and triadic exchanges, were documented across different locomotor stages (crawling, cruising, walking).

Main Results:

Object contact and pre-contact movements did not significantly differ across locomotor levels.
Infants who began walking showed increased social interactions compared to crawlers or cruisers.
Social interactions intensified with more caregivers present and increased in frequency as infants started walking, involving more movement prior to interaction.

Conclusions:

Infant locomotion development significantly influences social interaction patterns.
Crawling infants exhibit more object-focused engagement, whereas walking infants demonstrate locomotion driven by social cues.
Walking facilitates more complex social interactions within a multi-person environment, suggesting locomotion aids in developing elaborated social skills through objects.