Attention span is huge!

Our latest trip to UMD for an Infant Study:

We arrived a little late and Abby was hungry, so I wasn't sure that she would be ready for a tedious, repetitive study. But we took a few minutes for Abby to enjoy her bottle while I filled out the prerequisite paperwork.

The activity began with two toys in front of a researcher. She got Abby's attention and then used an L-shaped hook to pull the rainbow colored ball towards her. The person behind the video camera then waited until Abby looked away from the toy for a minimum of two seconds - testing her attention span.

Abby has a HUGE attention span - definitely longer than mine! It seemed like we waited forever for her to look away and then they repeated the activity over and over again trying to reduce her attention span. We must have watched that girl pull the rainbow ball towards herself two dozen times and each time it was at least a full minute before Abby looked away. Most of my high school students don't have attention spans like this!

To finish, the researcher switched the two objects and then, instead of pulling the rainbow ball towards herself, she looked at it and they noted which direction Abby looked and for how long. If she's studying a researcher's simple action with this much attention, imagine the intensity she uses to study everything Rob and I do!

I can't decide if this concerns me or impresses me more.