Early development begins in the womb. After birth, infants spend their first months in their parents’ arms and gradually transition to childcare, nursery, or school. One of the most important changes during this time is learning to move from co-regulation, where caregivers guide a child’s behaviour, to self-regulation, where children manage their own thoughts, emotions, and actions. This transition is essential for healthy social, emotional, and cognitive development, laying the foundation for attention, learning, and lifelong well-being.
Our project aimed to understand how this shift from co-regulation to self-regulation happens in everyday life. Rather than relying solely on traditional laboratory experiments, we collected naturalistic data from infants and caregivers at home and in the lab. Using wearable devices, cameras, and non-invasive brain and heart monitoring, we observed daily interactions and physiological responses. This approach allowed us to see how self-regulation emerges through relationships and environmental interactions rather than as an abstract skill measured in isolation.
We recruited over 100 families and followed infants and caregivers longitudinally, recording brain activity, heart rhythms, and behaviours at multiple ages. Six PhD researchers analysed these rich datasets from different perspectives, exploring how children’s self-regulation emerges and how infants and caregivers synchronize their behaviours and physiological states over time. This project is the first to combine home-based monitoring and lab-based measurements to study infant-caregiver interactions longitudinally. By observing natural behaviours over time, we gained insights into the dynamic processes of early development that have never been captured before. Our innovative methods advance the state of the art by moving beyond traditional lab-based studies, providing a deeper understanding of how self-regulation develops in context. We successfully collected and analysed extensive data, developed new methods for studying naturalistic interactions, and maintained robust recruitment despite challenges such as COVID-19 disruptions. The project generated 17 publications, multiple conference presentations, and public engagement activities, including outreach events celebrating local families. Media coverage has helped raise awareness of early childhood development research. Our findings are expected to have a significant impact, informing early childhood education, parenting strategies, and interventions that support children’s healthy growth. By revealing how self-regulation emerges naturally from everyday interactions, the project provides guidance for supporting children’s cognitive, emotional, and social development in practical, real-world settings.
For more information, visit our project website: www.isey.org
