Feasibility of Undertaking Off-Site Infant Eye-Tracking Assessments of Neuro-Cognitive Functioning in Early-Intervention Centres

Recent work suggests that differences in functional brain development
are already identifiable in 6- to 9-month-old infants from low
socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds. Investigation of early
SES-related differences in neuro-cognitive functioning requires
the recruitment of large and diverse samples of infants, yet it is
often difficult to persuade low-SES parents to come to a university
setting. One solution is to recruit infants through early intervention
children’s centres (CCs). These are often located in areas of
high relative deprivation to support young children. Given the
increasing portability of eye-tracking equipment, assessment of
large clusters of infants could be undertaken in centres by suitably
trained early intervention staff. Here, we report on a study involving
174 infants and their parents, carried out in partnership with
CCs, exploring the feasibility of this approach. We report the
processes of setting up the project and participant recruitment.
We report the diversity of sample obtained on the engagement of
CC staff in training and the process of assessment itself.We report
the quality of the data obtained, and the levels of engagement of
parents and infants. We conclude that this approach has great
potential for recruiting large and diverse samples worldwide,
provides sufficiently reliable data and is engaging to staff, parents
and infants.