Escudero Paola, Pino Escobar Gloria, Casey Charlotte G, Sommer Kristyn
The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Bankstown, NSW, Australia.
Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
Front Psychol. 2021 Mar 12;12:610975. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.610975. eCollection 2021.
Developmental research typically relies on face-to-face testing at laboratories, childcare centers, museums or playgroups. Current social distancing measures have led to a halt in research. Although face-to-face interaction is considered essential for research involving young children, current technology provides viable alternatives. This paper introduces an accessible, replicable and easy to follow method to conduct online developmental research with young children employing a word-learning task as an exemplar, including a detailed workflow and step-by-step guide to using easily accessible programs and platforms. Four-year-old children's ( = 56) performance on a word-learning task delivered online vs. face-to-face is provided as a method validation. Children's performance on the word-learning task was predominantly consistent across delivery modes, with only slight variation in performance between modes. The implications of these similar results across face-to-face and online methods are discussed alongside avenues for further research. Importantly, this paper presents an emerging methodological approach for the online administration of developmental science both within and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, adding a new tool to current and future developmental scientist's toolkits.
发展性研究通常依赖于在实验室、儿童保育中心、博物馆或游戏小组进行面对面测试。当前的社交距离措施导致研究停滞。尽管面对面互动被认为是涉及幼儿的研究的关键，但当前技术提供了可行的替代方案。本文介绍了一种可访问、可复制且易于遵循的方法，以幼儿的词汇学习任务为例进行在线发展性研究，包括详细的工作流程以及使用易于访问的程序和平台的分步指南。作为方法验证，提供了56名4岁儿童在在线与面对面进行的词汇学习任务中的表现。儿童在词汇学习任务中的表现主要在不同交付模式下保持一致，不同模式之间的表现仅有轻微差异。本文讨论了这些面对面和在线方法的相似结果的意义以及进一步研究的途径。重要的是，本文提出了一种在COVID-19大流行期间及之后用于发展科学在线管理的新兴方法，为当前和未来发展科学家的工具包增添了新工具。
