Lancaster University Infant and Child Development Lab

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of representing our Lancaster University Infant and Child Development Lab at the Family Fun Day at Trumacar Nursery and Community Primary School in Heysham, organised and run by the wonderful staff from the Lancaster and Morecambe Family Hub!

We’re so grateful for our links with the Family Hub, which give us fantastic opportunities to spread the word about our research and connect with families in our local community. We were also incredibly impressed by the amount of work that goes into making these events happen and keeping them completely FREE for families, from inflatables, sports, arts and crafts to tasty and healthy wraps and water! 🎨⚽🥙

A huge thank you to the lovely Family Hub team for everything they do, not just at these events but throughout the year. They offer so many fantastic opportunities for families, from prenatal classes to courses and activities for parents and children of all ages.

If you haven’t already, we really encourage you to check out what your local Family Hub has to offer or join the last Family Fun Day of the summer at Firbank/Castleview Primary on Wednesday 19th August!

Brandon from the Infant and Child Development Lab will be there too, so please come over and say hi! 👋

We are so sorry that parking fines were erroneously issued to campus visitors during our Family Fun Day on 18th July - we were reassured that the parking system would be turned off for the occasion. First Parking, who administer the parking system on campus, have now confirmed that all PCNs (parking fines) issued on this day have been cancelled. All affected should receive confirmation of the cancellation from First Parking via post in the coming days. If you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to email us at [email protected]

We’ve learned that some parking fines may have been erroneously issued to campus visitors this past Saturday. If you attended the Family Fun Day and receive one, please send us email at [email protected] so that we can rectify the situation. We sincerely apologise to anyone affected. We are working with the University’s parking service and will provide an update next week.

Cuteness overload at the ICD Lab! 🦖

Look who rocked up already in their ICD lab merch and completely stole the show during his recent visit!

We used our eye-tracker to follow his gaze and see how he scanned our pictures - where does he look? In what order? What did he like to look at most?

A big thank you to this little one's mum for bringing him in to help Sathana with her MSc dissertation research!

To get involved in the fun with your little one, click this link to sign up:

https://lancasteruni.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_885zSTAv7qYopBs?Q_CHL=qr

The big day is almost here! Come and celebrate with us tomorrow (Saturday 18th July; 10am-2pm) at ICDL’s First Birthday Party. Bring the family to join in the fun with face painting, science quests, games…and cake! The event is entirely free and great for children of all ages. Please RSVP using the link (https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/sci-tech/about-us/events/infant-and-child-development-labs-first-birthday-celebration/) or scanning the QR code. See you tomorrow!

Looking for a free family event that includes science quests, party games, crafts and more? Join us next week on Saturday 18th July (10am-2pm) to celebrate ICDL’s First Birthday Party! Please RSVP using the link (https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/sci-tech/about-us/events/infant-and-child-development-labs-first-birthday-celebration/) or scanning the QR code. Let’s celebrate together!

☀️ 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲! ☀️

Looking for something fun and engaging for your child this summer? The 𝗣𝗘𝗟𝗶𝗖𝗔𝗡 𝗟𝗮𝗯 team at Lancaster University Infant and Child Development Lab are running FREE one-day holiday camps as part of their research.

𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙨 𝙙𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙫𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙩?
✅ A full day of fun activities including science and games
✅ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm (drop-off from 8:30 am preferred)
✅ Lunch and snacks provided
✅ Completely FREE of charge

🔍𝙒𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙤:
• Are 6–11 years old
• Are primarily English-speaking
• Have typical hearing
• Have no diagnosed neurological, learning, or attentional
conditions

These eligibility criteria are part of the ethical approval for our research projects, so we're sorry if this means some children aren't able to take part on this occasion.

🗓️ 𝘾𝙖𝙢𝙥 𝘿𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨:
Monday 27th July 2026
Wednesday 29th July 2026
Friday 31st July 2026
Sunday 2nd August 2026
Saturday 22nd August 2026
Monday 24th August 2026
Wednesday 26th August 2026
Thursday 27th August 2026

𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙙?
Register your interest and we'll be in touch with further details and a short eligibility questionnaire to check whether the study is a good fit for your child.

📝 https://redcap.lancaster.ac.uk/surveys/?s=3X4MLJDKMTJ88L7N

If you're unsure whether your child is eligible, or would simply like to find out more before registering, please get in touch:
📧 𝙥𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙣@𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧.𝙖𝙘.𝙪𝙠

𝙋𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙡𝙮 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙧 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙋𝙀𝙇𝙄𝘾𝘼𝙉 𝙇𝙖𝙗 𝙨𝙩𝙪𝙙𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙄𝘾𝘿𝙇𝙖𝙗?
If your child(ren) has/have recently participated in one of our projects with the PELICAN Lab, we'd still love to hear from you! We're hoping to schedule additional mini-camps on different dates so that returning families don't miss out. Please email us, and we'll do our best to find a suitable session for your child.

We can't wait to welcome you this summer!

Do you have a 13 to 15 month old? We are looking for toddlers to help us explore how babies recognise objects and how this changes once they learn object names. Using an eye tracker, we measure how older and younger babies look at and respond to pictures when they hear object names. We are almost finished with data collection but we need a few more older babies so please get in touch at [email protected] if you’re interested in taking part in July or August.

We are so grateful that so many of you have already helped us with this study, and we have now completed collection for our younger (7-9 months) group. We hope to share some findings soon!

For parents who are kind enough to visit our lab regularly - we are sorry that, if your baby has already taken part as a younger baby, we unfortunately cannot see them again to take part in our older group. This is due to the way that we must analyse differences between the age groups but we hope to see you for other studies in the future instead :)

With just over two weeks to go, the ICDL team are busy getting everything ready for our first birthday party! We would love for you to celebrate with us on Saturday 18th July (10am-2pm) . Please RSVP to this free event using the link (https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/sci-tech/about-us/events/infant-and-child-development-labs-first-birthday-celebration/) or scanning the QR code. Come and join in the fun!

Can your baby help us understand how they see the world?

Infants' vision improves dramatically during the first year of life, but recognising and telling objects apart is a skill that develops more gradually.

Think about looking at letters and symbols from a language you don't know. You can see them clearly, but recognising and distinguishing them is much harder. Researchers think babies may face a similar challenge as they learn to make sense of the objects around them.

We're looking for babies aged 5.5–6.5 months or 11.5–12.5 months to take part in a new study at Lancaster University's Infant and Child Development Lab. We want to understand whether babies recognise objects by their overall shape or by smaller details, such as curves and corners.

The study involves a single 45-minute visit to our lab, where your baby will complete a safe, non-invasive eye-tracking task while looking at pictures on a screen. We'll also ask you to complete a short questionnaire about your baby's motor development, including skills such as sitting, crawling and grasping.

Free parking is available.

If you'd like to take part or would like more information, please scan the QR code on the poster or email [email protected]. We'd be delighted to hear from you.