Baby steps: objects, materials and mobility in early childhood

The Baby Steps project investiates the roles that objects and materials play in young children's mobility. It sets out to understand how a range of objects and materials affect young children's emerging ability to move. I am interested in a wide range of objects including, but not limited to: shoes, baby walkers, push-along toys, buggies, playground equipment, stairs and stair gates.

In particular the project explores:

• the emergence and design of specialised objects intended to promote or impede young children's ability to creep, crawl, cruise, walk, run, jump and climb; and

• how young children use and interact with a whole range of objects and materials (both specially designed for the purpose and others that they encounter in their everyday environments) as they become increasingly mobile over time.

The project will draw upon three types of data: documentary and archival materials; interviews with manufacturers, designers and sellers; and fieldwork with young children and their families.

© Lesley-Anne Gallacher 2007