Thank you for your interest in becoming a citizen scientist alongside your new baby in your own home. By taking part in this study, you’ll gain a unique perspective on your baby’s first year of life – seeing how they develop and grow, learning new skills and discovering the world around them! 

We’re Recruiting!

About Us:

Researchers from the University of Sussex and Birkbeck, University of London are conducting this ground-breaking study to better understand how your infant’s movements support their emerging social and communication skills. We’re using intelligent onesies that can record your baby’s natural movements (in your own home) for a few minutes each week, during the first 18 months of their life. 

Be a Baby Scientist

How motor and cognitive development support each other is not well understood. Our study is aimed at showing us how these seemingly different processes interact by looking at the kinds of movements your baby is making and when.

We’ll do this using state of the art sensor technology embedded in soft and snug, high-tech onesies that record your baby’s actions, yet are familiar and comfortable to wear – your child won’t have any idea they’ve become a baby scientist! 

The study will take place in the comfort of your own home during your baby’s normal routine. The information produced by the sensors as your baby moves naturally will be sent back to the study team by using a tiny portable computer that will be provided to you in a Baby Grow pack. We’ll also ask you to take a short video with your phone of your baby in the Baby Grow suit each week, so we can make sure the sensors are doing their job.

Baby Grow features in BBC’s Brain Hacks

Click the image to watch:

Interested in participating in this exciting new project?

Contact the Baby Grow Team: babygrow2023@gmail.com

The Baby Grow study doesn’t have any exclusion criteria, so for example it doesn’t matter whether you have a high or low risk pregnancy, as long as you’re an expectant mum in the UK with a due date between now and December 2024 you can take part. We also welcome participants with a family history of neurodevelopmental disorders, as it’s thought these may be associated with certain movement patterns in infancy. If these links can be uncovered, it would help many families get help and support for their child’s development when it’s needed most, as early as possible. 

Our research team includes a group of researchers passionate about early development and Autism research. Please feel free to contact the research team should you have any questions about the research or if you’d like to be a part of Baby Grow – we’d love to hear from you!

Learn more about Professor Gilly Forrester: www.gillianforrester.com

Learn more about our team and research at: www.mehuman.io

Our Team

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This research has been approved ([ER/GF235/1]) by the Sciences & Technology Cross-Schools Research Ethics Committee (C-REC) (crecscitec@sussex.ac.uk). The University of Sussex has insurance in place to cover its legal liabilities in respect of this study.