Automated iPad-based gaze detection in the NIH Baby Toolbox® norming study

The NIH Baby Toolbox® ("Baby Toolbox") is a comprehensive battery of assessments administered on an iPad and designed for children aged 1-42 months. It is also the first normed developmental assessment to include gaze paradigms, which are common in developmental research and provide a non-invasive technique for measuring attention and cognitive processes without requiring a coordinated motor or verbal response from the child. Baby Toolbox gaze paradigms collect real-time eye gaze data using augmented reality features native to the iPad. Here, we describe our approach to developing and validating this gaze technology for the Baby Toolbox norming study. In a sample of 1079 infants between 6 and 23 months, we found strong calibration success across ages, sex, race/ethnicity, parental education and eye-color although some group differences emerged for race/ethnicity and parental education. Reliability results against hand-coding demonstrated moderate to strong reliability, although results varied by individual. Overall, these results highlight the Baby Toolbox gaze technology as an exciting and novel approach to developmental assessment.