Visit Information

Visit Information

Before signing up for one of our projects, we want to help you know more about what you can expect while participating and how we at the Family & Development Lab protect your personal information. If you decide you would like to participate, you can complete the registration form.

How long does a typical visit take?

In our current video project, although it differs based on the number of tasks we’re filming and how old the children are, it typically takes us somewhere around 2 hours to film several tasks with each child. For participating infants in childcare settings, we plan to film each child for less than an hour and may stagger filming around their schedule. Before all visits, we will send you a full list of all the tasks we are hoping to film with your child, so you’ll know what to expect, and for parents electing to have their children filmed while at daycare/preschool, we will send along a video release form ahead of your child’s visit.

What ages of children are you currently looking for?

For our current video project, we’re looking to film common developmental tasks with children and infants under 5 years of age. Do you have a kiddo in this age range and you’re interested to see what they may do in some of these tasks? You can register your family here.

What will my infant/child do?

The daycare/preschool facilities we’re partnering with will send home information on our video project and a video release form for any interested parents. We’ll give you lots of information ahead of time about the tasks that we’re interested in potentially filming with your child, and you (the parent) get to decide if there are any tasks which you don’t want your child to do. If you decide not to have your child filmed at all, that’s okay too. For those families who submit a video release form, we will film your child during a typical daycare/preschool day that we arrange in advance with the facility.

Who will be present during my child’s recording session?

During recording sessions, daycare/preschool personnel and members of the FamDev team will stay in the same room with your child during the entire filming process. If parents are available, they’re welcome to join in as well! Our goal is for your child to just play, talk, and move as they normally do while at daycare/preschool, and we’re just aiming to capture it on camera to show typical development.

What if there’s a part I don’t want to do?

We want all our participating families to have a pleasant and comfortable experience, so if there are any tasks with which you feel uncomfortable, we can simply skip it. You and/or your child are free not to participate or to withdraw at any time, for whatever reason.

What if I still have more questions?

That’s great! Feel free to email us and we’ll do our best to answer any questions you may have about participating in our video project. You’re also free to ask us whatever questions you have at any point before, during, or after participating in our project.

Am I committing to anything by registering?

Absolutely not! Registering your family is simply a way of indicating you would like more information. If you register and are eligible for our current project, we will contact you and explain all the details. You can decide at that point whether you would like to participate or not. If you indicate on your registration form that you would like to be contacted about other studies in the Family & Development Lab for which you are eligible, we will contact you in the future when those opportunities arise. As always, you’re free to decide whether or not you would like to participate.

What will happen to these videos once they’re recorded?

The goal of this project is to create a library of high-quality developmental psychology videos to demonstrate what children are capable of at various ages. We plan to create a video database to be hosted through the Providence College Library where instructors and researchers may access these videos for use in their classrooms and research labs. Beyond a child’s first name, likeness, and/or age, other personal details about them will not be shared in the video. Typically, these videos will be compilations of several children across various ages engaging in the same task to show how children tend to perform differently over time. None of our tasks involve any deception, and are meant to display the fun and interesting developmental changes that occur in the first few years of life.

How do we sign up or learn more?

To learn more and potentially sign up for our video project, please fill out the participant registration form.