Welcome to the Child Development Laboratories!

We are currently offering activities online over Zoom, in-person at participating daycares, and at the University of Ottawa.

Our activities are fun and engaging for children, and may be a learning experience for parents. Ultimately, your participation helps us learn more about your child development. As a thank you for participating, most of our activities offer a gift and/or compensation for participating!

Our activities are designed in a fun, game-like format! Children usually have a lot of fun participating in our activities.

The Childhood Thinking Lab at the University of Ottawa is directed by Dr. Patricia Brosseau-Liard. Her main area of research pertains to the study of young children's evaluation of other people's knowledge and selective social learning.

To learn more about the CTL, please visit their lab website. 

The Language Development Lab runs under the direction of Dr. Christopher Fennell. Our research team is composed of fourth-year honours students, graduate students, volunteers, and research assistants. All of our members are enthusiastic about early language acquisition and enjoy working with young children. By observing how babies listen and respond to spoken language, we hope to unlock the mysteries of language learning!

To learn more about the LDL, please visit their lab website. 

The Child and Adult Relationships and Environments Lab (CARELab) began conducting research in the Fall of 2007 under the direction of Dr. Jean-François Bureau. It is a developmental psychology lab interested in learning more about how parents shape the development of their children. We are currently recruiting parents who have a child aged 3 to 5 for an in-person study.

To learn more about the CARELab, please visit their lab website. 

The Cognition and Emotion Lab is directed by Dr. Erin Maloney. The research in our lab sits at the intersection of cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, and education. We focus on the cognitive and emotional factors that influence math learning and the impact parents and teachers have on children’s learning. Much of our work focuses on the role of math anxiety in math performance. In addition to answering basic questions about numerical and mathematical representation and learning, we use our research to inform educational practice and policy. 

To learn more about the Cognition and Emotion Lab, please visit our website: website

Directed by Dr. Stuart Hammond, the Social and Moral Lab is interested in several aspects of children's social and moral development. Particularly, we examine children's early helping, their social, moral, cognitive, and emotional development, and the role of parents in fostering these developments.

Conducted by the Childhood Thinking Lab, this activity aims to learn more about the links between young children’s learning (aged 4.5 to 5.5) strategies and their various cognitive skills. Your child’s participation will consist of either one visit to the University of Ottawa (lasting approximately one hour; the study itself lasts approximately 15 to 30 minutes) or one e-visit over Zoom (lasting approximately 15 to 30 minutes). During this session, your child will play a series of short games with an experimenter that might involve short video clips and a variety of toys and pictures. These tasks evaluate, for example, how a child decides between different sources of information; we also look at various cognitive and social competencies and at how children evaluate information presented to them. Most of the questions are simple yes-no questions or require the child to pick one object among a series. To thank participants, children will receive a small present at the end of the study. Free parking or transit fare is provided for in-person sessions.   

*Please note that this activity is offered in English and French at the University of Ottawa OR online over Zoom.

Conducted by the CARELab, we are interested in learning more about how mothers and fathers play with their children aged 3 to 5. Each parent will be invited to come to the University of Ottawa separately to play different games with their child. You will receive $40 for each session attended, and your child will receive a special surprise for each research session in which you participate. Parking is free at the University for participants. This study is offered in both English and French. 

**Please note, for this study, you must have lived with your partner for at least 2 years and are still currently living with them**

Conducted by the Language Development Lab, this activity asks how 12 to 14-month-old English monolingual and French-English bilingual infants detect words in noisy conditions. Specifically, we are looking at babies' ability to detect known words when hearing overlapping voices, like in a crowded room. Your baby will see pairs of familiar objects while listening to several voices, one of which is saying the name of one of the objects. We will record your baby’s face to see their reaction to the objects (looking time). Our question is: will infants look to the labeled object even under these challenging conditions?  

This study involves having you and your child come to the University of Ottawa campus to complete the task described above. You will also be asked to fill out three questionnaires regarding general demographics, and your baby’s language knowledge and language exposure. The study takes approximately 45 min to complete. Free parking or bus fare is provided, and your child will get a small prize at the end of the study! 

*** Please note that this study is currently only offered in English and your child must be able to understand English*** 

This activity is conducted by the Childhood Cognition and Learning Lab. Previous research has shown that when presented with options, 4-year-olds are able to select an item that will help them in the future. However, there is little research on how children prepare for the future, without being told to. Some evidence suggests that this spontaneous preparation doesn’t begin until middle childhood (around 7 years old). We’re interested in seeing if children (aged 4 to 6) will bring a useful item from one room to another to prepare for a future activity in person. The study involves having you and your child come to the University of Ottawa campus where your child will complete some fun activities. The whole experience should last approximately one hour to complete. Free parking is provided, and your child will get the choice of a prize at the end of the study. 

*Please note that this activity is currently available in English only. 

Conducted by the Language Development Lab, this activity asks how 7- and 11-month-old bilingual infants perceive differences in voices heard. Specifically, we are looking at babies' ability to discriminate between a change in the number of voices when listening to their native (familiar) or non-native (unfamiliar) language. Your baby will see a checkerboard pattern while listening to a number of voices being repeated; each voice will say a short sentence common to babies, such as ‘Oh! The cat is friendly.’. We will play this for the baby until s/he gets bored. We will then play your baby something new: a new number of voices (e.g., three voices become 6 voices). We will videotape your baby’s face to see his/her reaction to this new stimulus (looking time). If s/he has noticed the fine difference between a change in the number of voices, then s/he should look longer at the checkerboard when the change in the number of voices occurs. This activity tales place online over Zoom.