The visit of 18 months, a very complete visit !!
The BiSC Project has already visited more than 200 of the children who have reached the age of 18 months. This visit is very complete as it collects a whole set of data including different perspectives on children’s development as well as some of the variables involved. Around the age of 18 months of their children, the volunteers receive a call which opens the possibility of collecting the following data:
• General questionnaire: this is an online questionnaire to be answered, where the volunteers report on the food, sleep and health of their children, as well as the characteristics of the usual homes and other information that helps us understand the habits of the children. children of the project.
• Neuropsychological questionnaire: This is an online questionnaire to be completed by volunteers which includes two tests that assess possible difficulties in behavior or development of children. These tests are:
- CBCL: The “Child Behavior Checklist” is a questionnaire with 100 questions that assesses the socio-affective development of children.
- (M ‐ CHAT ‐ R / F): Revised Autism Detection Questionnaire in Young Children with Follow-up Interview. • Face-to-face visit: A visit where the Bayley-III test is performed, which is a tool where through the game (child-examiner) and the relationship they create for an hour, the level of development of the ‘child in the areas of language, cognition and motor skills. It also makes it possible to identify possible developmental difficulties or delays and, if so, make a referral to the pediatrician in order to initiate a clinical evaluation and treatment program.
• NO2 measurement: it is installed for a week in the pram of the child who has just turned 18 months, a filter that absorbs the nitrogen dioxide in the air. This will allow us to measure the concentration of this pollutant to which each of our children in the project is exposed.
• Urine and stool samples: Bisc project volunteers are asked to collect a urine and a stool sample from their child. These samples will give us very valuable information such as the evolution of the microbiota of the intestines of children (remember that we already collected a sample of meconium and a sample of feces at 6 months), concentrations of nanoplastics, pesticides, etc …
• Eye-tracker technique: The eye-tracking technique is a test that is also being carried out in person at 18 months of age. It consists of showing the child some images through a video while a device follows his visual attention (which image attracts him more or less, hence the name “eye tracking”). In the BiSC Project we are using this technique at 6 and 18 months and it allows us to investigate the state of neurocognitive development such as children’s visual memory, object permanence, or word learning.
As you can see, the data collection at 18 months of the volunteers and their children from the BiSC Project is quite complete and it is important to be able to take into account the maximum of factors that are influencing the development of children. In this way we can better discern and understand the effect of pollution on them.
The BiSC Project team would like to thank all the volunteers who have already been able to participate in the 18-month visit and those who will and will participate over the next few months!
The text has been written by Muriel Ferrer, a psychologist and research technician at BiSC project.