Happy New Year from all of us at Cardiff Babylab! 🎉 🎆 We would like to say a huge thank you to all the little scientists and families who took part last year! Our research would not be possible without you! We’ve got exciting things planned for the year ahead! Keep an eye on our socials for more!

Wishing you all a joyful and relaxing festive season from everyone at Cardiff Babylab! 🎄✨ Thank you for being part of our community, here’s to a bright and happy new year!

🚨New PhD studentship🚨 Do you want to know what everyday play really looks like to young children? Are you interested in how children’s daily experiences shape early development? Click on the link below to find out more! 📅Closing date: February 13, 2026 📅Start date: October 2026

On Human Rights Day we recognise the rights of babies, children and young people in Wales. Children’s rights, part of human rights, help build safer, fairer and more inclusive communities.

We’re launching ‘Power to the Dads’, exploring dads’ experiences, involvement & awareness of children’s rights in Wales. Dads want to be heard & supported www.childreninwales.org.uk/news/Childre...

Join our Community of Practice webinar: Social Model of Disability; What it is and why it matters. Speaker: Vicky, Disabled People’s Employment Champion for Welsh Government, brings personal insight and extensive experience supporting disabled people of all ages.

🌟 Exciting news! My book "Mothering at the Margins: Black Mothers Raising Autistic Children in the UK" (co-authored with Dr Claire Malcolm) is coming out on 8th July! With a foreword by Professor Jason Arday! Available for pre-order now! #BlackMothers #AutismCommunity amzn.eu/d/djSyVzs

Are you interested in Speech, Language and Communication in early years, or the policies surrounding it? Cardiff Babylab will be attending the annual Study Day as part of the Welsh Government’s Talk With Me Campaign on Tuesday the 14th of October, and you can join too!

October is Down syndrome awareness month! 💙💛 At Cardiff Babylab, we’re proud to work with all the amazing families, charities, and organisations who make our research possible. Look out for more opportunities for little scientists to take part in our studies!

Congratulations, also, to Joanna from Babylab PAN (supervised by @tomalski.bsky.social) who delivered a fantastic 15 minute presentation titled "Talking Hands: Maternal Speech and Hand Movements in Mother-Infant Interactions" 🌟 #ICDL2025

Keep an eye out for some more photos and details of the babylab presentations over the next few days but, in the meantime, check out a few of our fabulous presenters from Friday's poster session! #ICDL2025

The Cardiff Babylab team is back in the UK from Prague, and reflecting on the wonderful last day of #ICDL2025 and the conference in general! Huge thank you to the conference organisers for a stimulating and thought provoking programme, we already can't wait for next year! @ieee-icdl.bsky.social

We also loved the opportunity to meet and chat with the speakers and other talented conference attendees at yesterday's fantastic conference dinner! Very excited for the third and final day of #ICDL2025

Particular congratulations to Agata from Babylab PAN (supervised by @tomalski.bsky.social) on her fantastic spotlight talk and poster yesterday! What a wonderful presentation! #ICDL2025

Another fantastic day at @ieee-icdl.bsky.social yesterday! We were treated to exciting keynotes about spatial language development and designing neurorobotics, and plenty of wonderful contributed talks about a range of developmental topics! Day 3 - let's go! #ICDL2025

A big well done to all Babylab members (Dean, Catia on behalf of Teddy, Sofia, Charlotte, and Craig) who presented their posters yesterday at @ieee-icdl.bsky.social to some wonderful feedback. Bring on Day 2! #ICDL2025

Huge congratulations to our PhD student, Craig, for his fantastic poster spotlight talk yesterday at @ieee-icdl.bsky.social - well done on a great talk and poster presentation! #ICDL2025

We've had an amazing first day at @ieee-icdl.bsky.social From fantastic keynotes to fascinating contributed papers, it's been wonderful to see the ongoing work in this exciting field that combines development with computing and robotics! Some highlights from Day 1: #ICDL2025

Almost time for ICDL 2025. Last poster printed and looking forward to all the great sessions! @ieee-icdl.bsky.social

Our fantastic PhD student, Charlotte, will be running the Cardiff Half Marathon this October to help raise money for the amazing local charity, Seren Dwt 🌟

Earlier this week, our PhD student, @sofiahryniv.bsky.social, represented the Cardiff Babylab at the Child Language Symposium 2025, held at @uniofreading.bsky.social.

🚀Ready to bridge cutting-edge research with real-world impact? Join the Language Acquisition Across Cultures team at The Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholingustiques as a Scientific Product Manager for the ExELang ERC Project!

Last week, members of Cardiff Babylab attended the 9th Lancaster Conference on Infant and Child Development (LCICD), organised by the brilliant Babylab team at Lancaster University.

Cardiff Babylab is excited to launch a new, remote study for medical and allied health professionals in the UK! We are inviting professionals to give their thoughts on integrating wearable head cameras into their practice. Find out more: www.cardiff-babylab.com/tinyexplorer...

The Welsh Government consultation on the Draft Disabled People’s Rights Plan closes on 7 August. Open to contributions from anyone, find out how to contribute online or in writing at the link below! www.gov.wales/consultation...

The Speech and Cognition group at Tampere University is accepting applications for an exciting funded PhD position. The position will be associated with the Linking Age-Dependent Changes in Caregiver Speech to Infant Language Development project. More info here: tuni.rekrytointi.com/paikat/?o=A_...

Is curiosity good for us, or should we learn a lesson from what curiosity did to the cat? A fascinating discussion on the psychology of curiosity, contributed to by Cardiff University’s very own @mjgruber.bsky.social ! Find it here www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Early last week, Cardiff Babylab hosted LFRAZ, a free two day workshop, in collaboration with Université PSL & The Prairie Institute. Thanks to Niveen, @catiamoliveira.bsky.social and @sofiahryniv.bsky.social for running the sessions!

Our lab attended a screening by @omarmohamedsw.bsky.social - an eye-opening film examining the disproportionate representation of Black children in the care system. Grateful for the conversations it sparked, and huge appreciation to the incredible panel for their expertise @nyasservices.bsky.social

⚠️Late-breaking results as 1-page abstracts ⌛Deadline: June 13, 2025. Conf: September 16–19, 2025 in Prague, Czechia. Website: icdl2025.fel.cvut.cz

We attended the first Cardiff Vision and Image Computing workshop, which took place on the 2nd of June 2025 at ABACWS A huge thank you to the organisers in the Cardiff Visual Computing Department, all the speakers for a day of fantastic talks, and to everyone who presented posters!

Interested in collecting and processing naturalistic audio data using new AI tools? If so, join us for our free, two-day workshop; 'Long Form Audio Recordings: A to Z', generously supported by Cardiff University Doctoral Academy.

Dr Liz Gregory has launched the Pledge for Babies, a vital step in making sure babies’ voices are at the forefront of decisions in policy, services and society. The first 1000 days matter – and today, we’re pledging to protect them. #First1000Days

We're excited to host Dr. Przemek Tomalski on 22nd May 2025 at 1pm in the Psychology Tower Building at Cardiff University for our Towards Complexity Seminar Series on “The organization of infants’ motor activity during infant-parent play: Getting a broader look with wearable Inertial Motion Units”.

The IEEE #ICDL2025 International Conference on Development and Learning (🤖👶💻🧠) will take place in one of Europe’s most beautiful cities, at Czech technical university in Prague. Web: icdl2025.fel.cvut.cz Local chair: @humanoidsCTU Looking forward to seeing you there👇

Check out this new paper which explores the changes in children's wellbeing and mental health across the early school years and how it is associated with academic and social competence. Here is the link to read the paper: psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

Glad to share this new study comparing the performance and biases of the LENA and ACLEW algorithms in analyzing language environments in Down, Fragile X, Angelman syndromes, and populations at elevated likelihood for autism 👶📄 osf.io/preprints/ps... 🧵1/12

Congratulations to our collaborators at Babylab Pan (@tomalski.bsky.social, @polskaakademianauk.bsky.social) for their recent publication discussing the relationship between temperament and motor system organisation www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #psychology #development #temperament #motor

Last week was busy for Cardiff Babylab! As well as attending the Down Syndrome Research Forum 2025, and hosting a well-attended and hugely enjoyable event for #WorldDownSyndromeDay, members of the team also attended the #EarlyYearsReadingConference at the Temple of Peace, Cardiff

Cardiff Babylab is celebrating World Down Syndrome Day 2025! So lovely to have so many thoughtful discussions about our data and child development in general Looking forward to our guest speaker Q&A and quiz!

An amazing end to @dseinternational.bsky.social 2025 Research Forum! We loved the discussions around the roles and experiences of parents and practitioners in supporting children and teens with Down syndrome with reading - so many great ideas about best practices!

Thank you to Sue Buckley (@dseinternational.bsky.social) for a lovely overview of your research journey and reading literature and interventions more generally! Looking forward to the upcoming symposium and discussions!

Thank you to the speakers at @dseinternational.bsky.social 2025 Research Forum for the overview of parents' experiences surrounding the care of children with Down syndrome, and the importance of co-production across all stages of research! Plenty for us all to reflect on

Great to be back for Day 3 of the @dseinternational.bsky.social 2025 Research Forum! Fascinating to hear about maths abilities in children with Down syndrome, and how teachers and parents can support development of key maths abilities for day to day life!

And that's a wrap on day 2 of @dseinternational.bsky.social's 2025 Research Forum! Huge thanks to the DSMIG DS+CVI Workgroup for the symposium about Cerebral Visual Impairment, and the signs of it in children with Down syndrome. Looking forward to tuning in to Day 3!

Enjoying the talks we've heard throughout this morning and afternoon looking at aspects of language and communication in children with Down syndrome. From vocabulary development, to shared book reading, and home learning environments, what a great series of talks! @dseinternational.bsky.social

Another amazing talk at @dseinternational.bsky.social 2025 Research Forum! Fantastic to hear about some results from the PACT-DS language intervention from Kelly Burgoyne, and see the all positive impacts on both children and parents! Parents really are in a position of power to support development

What a fantastic start to Day 2 of @dseinternational.bsky.social 2025 Research Forum! Huge thanks to Professor Monica Cuskelly for a fantastic talk, urging us to consider wider family dynamics and sibling relationships in families with children with Down syndrome!

Huge thanks to all the presenters in Day 1 of the @dseinternational.bsky.social 2025 Research Forum! A fantastic series of talks, and lots for us to take forward in our own research!