Sensing the Future: How Continuous Data Is Shaping Child Development Research

This talk highlights the advanced use of sensing systems that collect continuous data from wearable devices, such as location trackers and voice-activated recorders, to deepen our understanding of human behavior and development. The speaker will explain behavioral imaging, which involves creating a dynamic multimodal representation of behavioral data over time. The focus will be on a specific sensing system and its application in two key studies in preschool environments. The first study investigates classroom social networks and the dynamics of children within these networks, while the second evaluates the effects of an intervention aimed at reducing social isolation in young children by altering network configurations. Speaker Laura Justice, EHE Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology and Executive Director of the Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy, Ohio State University