title: Socioeconomic status affects oral and manual exploration across the first year.
abstract: Oral and manual exploration are part of the foundation of problem solving and cognition in infancy. How these develop in an at-risk population, infants in poverty, is unknown. The current study tested exploratory behaviors longitudinally at 6, 9, and 12 months in infants from high- and low-socioeconomic (SES) families. Oral exploration consisted of passive and active mouthing and looks after active mouthing. Manual exploration consisted of frequency of fingering, rotating, and transferring the object. High-SES infants replicated the trajectory previously reported in the literature, showing a decrease in mouthing and fingering and an increase in rotating and transferring (e.g., Palmer, 1989). In contrast, low-SES infants showed no change in any of the manual exploratory behaviors over the first year, thus demonstrating reduced overall levels of exploration as well as a different developmental trajectory. Results are discussed in terms of attention, potential physiological mechanisms, and implications for later problem solving.
authors.affiliation: Whitman College.
authors.forename: Melissa W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Clearfield
authors.forename: Lillian S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Bailey
authors.forename: Helen K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Jenne
authors.forename: Sarah B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Stanger
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tacke
mesh_terms: D002657:Child Development; D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D006225:Hand; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D009043:Motor Activity; D009055:Mouth; D010988:Play and Playthings; D011203:Poverty; D014741:Video Recording