Today’s Friday Feature is Mouhamadou Cisse!

Mouhamadou is currently a Master’s in Biomedical Sciences at Barry University in Miami, Florida. He is a research assistant currently involved in the Caring Study, led by Dr. Eileen Condon, Ph.D., APRN, FNP-BC, a professor at the UConn Nursing Department. This research aims to explore the relationship between toxic stress, sleep patterns, and the health of both children and parents. Mouhamadou’s primary responsibility involves enrolling participants in the study, primarily within the CCMC Emergency Department. On occasion, when he gets lucky, he is able to participate in UConn KIDS events.

Learn more about the Caring Study here.

Mouhamadou graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2021 and currently resides in Windsor, CT. Though he was born and shortly lived in Dakar, Senegal. His career aspiration is to become a physician, and he is actively working towards getting admitted into medical school within the next two years. Mouhamadou’s enduring passion for science stems from childhood, and he’s proud to contribute to research that seeks to enhance people’s lives. The research he undertakes has the potential to assist mothers who struggle with sleep, identify modifiable factors, and influence how future mothers manage stress and sleep. Ultimately, it plays a significant role in a child’s health and development into adulthood.

Mouhamadou enjoys indulging in video games during his leisure time and currently owns a PlayStation 5 and a Nintendo Switch. Recently, he’s been immersed in Spiderman 2. In addition to gaming, he has a deep love for physical activities, having a background in soccer and track. Mouhamadou maintains a regular workout routine and focuses on cardio. Whenever the opportunity arises, he’s an enthusiastic traveler, and one of his favorite photos is from a trip to Morocco.

Babies cry. Every parent who is getting ready to have a kids knows that they will be losing sleep and gaining a lot of stress through this new stage in their life, but it is for the better. Babies crying and fussing may be undesirable, but it is necessary and actually good. They need our attention to survive and grow up healthy and that is the way they get it.

This TED Talk was very interesting. Sue Roffrey was very well spoken in it and was inspiring. This Ted Talk was about positive environment for development in schools. When schools promote a healthy environment for development, both children and teachers get a better experience. A positive environment fosters emotional well-being. When children feel safe, supported, and valued, they are more likely to develop healthy self-esteem and emotional resilience. This then contributes to better mental health and reduces the risk of emotional issues.

positive environments are more likely to inspire children’s intrinsic motivation to learn. When students are encouraged to explore their interests, think critically, and express themselves, they are more engaged in the learning process.

Overall this Ted Talk was very relevant with life today and is something that schools should follow immediately for the better future of our children

Watch the full Ted Talk Here!

Ben Solomon,

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

Good evening and happy Trivia Tuesday! Today’s question connects a bit with last weeks question…

A false-belief task is when a child is presented with a scenario where they must think about a situation from someone else’s perspective. A scenario like this would often be presented to a child:

Person 1 left their toy on the table and walked into another room. A person 2 then moved the toy and put it somewhere else different than where it was left. Person 1 then comes back into the room, would person 1 know where their toy is now?

This trivia Tuesday question is: would a 3-year-old child believe that the person knows where the toy’s new location is?

a.    Yes!

b.    No!

As promised, the answer to last week’s question is 7-12 years old! Children reach Piaget’s concrete operational stage around 7 to 12 years old where they can begin to understand concepts of conservation and have more of an organized, logical way of thinking. 

Tune in next Tuesday to find out the answer to this week’s question! 

Infants learn new things about their external environment every day; whether it be that hitting the drums makes loud noises or that objects are able to be picked up if you reach for them. But when do babies understand that they are people too? In other words, when do they become self-aware of themselves?

The given article answers these questions, addressing a popular test used to assess self-awareness in infants. The mirror test, also called the ‘rouge test’, is where a mark of red coloring is smudged on the infant’s nose. If the infant sees their reflection in a mirror and wipes the mark off, they are thought to have developed a sense of self. Babies who do not attempt to clean the smudge believe the reflection is another infant and not themselves; suggesting that these younger infants have not yet become self-aware. 

Self-awareness is typically acquired around two years of age, however studies have shown cross-cultural differences for this phase in children’s developmental trajectories.

Read the full article here!

Nolyette Verastegui

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

Today’s Friday Feature is Lucie Lopez

Lucie is an Undergraduate Student Investigator is Dr. Rhiannon Smith’s Social and Emotional Development Lab. She is currently working on a project through the UConn IDEA Grant Program researching the relationship between participation in free and reduced school meal programs and sense of belonging in school, particularly among adolescents.  Her project entails a two part study: the first part is a survey that asks college – aged people to think retrospectively about their experiences receiving free and reduced meals during their K-12 education in CT and how it impacted their sense of belonging. The second part is a survey for parents/guardians and their children in high school who participated in the free and reduced meal program before and throughout the COVID-10 pandemic. She is very excited to analyze her data and see how changes from the COVID pandemic impacted sense of belonging.

Lucie is from Avon, CT and is a senior at UConn, pursuing a dual degree in Psychological Sciences and Spanish. After completing her undergraduate education, she plans on attending graduate school to earn a Ph.D. in School Psychology. She is very passionate that more research in school psychology needs to focus on the social, emotional, and behavioral aspects of learning. With her research she hopes to inform policy allowing all schools to provide universal free meals to students. She is also a teaching assistant in the First Year Experience program, the student coordinator for the language and literacy programs in Community Outreach, and a peer research ambassador in the Office of Undergraduate Research.

Lucie loves to read, listen to music, walk outside, paint/draw, and play with her cat, Gary!

(Lucie and Rhiannon Smith at and IDEA Grant event last semester)

Not only is cooking with preschoolers a fun way to bond, but it can also help further their development. Cooking can help young children learn basic math skills by counting items, following step-by-step directions, or using measuring cups. Reading the recipe with your child can also promote literacy by introducing new words to their vocabulary. On top of this, it encourages children to have an adventurous palate. Kids may be more likely to try food if they play a role in preparing it. 

A boost in self-confidence is a big part of cooking with children. It allows them to showcase new skills they’ve learned, giving them a sense of accomplishment. Whether it’s stirring pancake batter, assembling a pizza, tearing lettuce, or simply adding ingredients, praise children and let them know that their help is important.

Read the full article here.

Emma Dineen

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

In this article, a popular topic in the world of child development is addressed surrounding critical periods. The critical period is thought of as a window in time where children must receive input from the world around them to properly develop important skills used later in life. There is a multitude of research that has been done on animals which have found critical windows for the development of the visual system as well as for the auditory system.

Researchers in this article were interested in whether or not this sort of window for auditory input exists for congenitally deaf children. In other words, is there a specific age in development where congenitally deaf children should receive a cochlear implant or engage in other forms of intervention? Is earlier better? 

In all tests of speech perception conducted with children ages 2-13 who received cochlear implants, researchers consistently found that earlier implantation is always better. More specifically, two year olds who received the implant significantly outperformed their older counterparts; showing possible evidence for a critical period of cochlear implantation for congenitally deaf children.

Read the full article here!

Nolyette Verastegui

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

Good afternoon and happy Trivia Tuesday! Today’s trivia question may be easier for those who examined your child’s critical thinking skills and watched as they gained a better understanding of how the world around them functions physically!

When it comes to understanding conservation, around what age do children start to understand this? **bonus: which stage in Piaget’s stages in sensorimotor development does this occur?**

1. 12 years old or older
2. around 7 to 12 years old
3. from birth
4. 2 to 5 years old

As promised, the answer to the last question on which of the five senses is developed first, the correct choice is touch! In the womb, fetuses develop touch as their first sense with hearing then developing after about 4 months in the womb.  Tune in next week to discover what the answer is for this week’s question and to learn more on child development!

Mikayla Clemens

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

Babies are naturally curious. They love to look around and examine what is going on in the environment that they are in, but did you know that infants look at what you look at most of the time? This process is called joint attention; infants will often look at you and take note what you are glancing at, and then will shift their gaze to that direction to match you! Infants and younger children tend to learn an enormous amount through mimicking behaviors that are displayed around them, so this is no surprise that infants engage in behavior like this. Recognizing and tuning into this aspect of social development can help you understand why your child may look to you when meeting a new person or look at you after looking at an object themselves. This can help build unspoken connections with your child and foster growth in this domain.

In the research article Infant responding to joint attention, executive processes, and self-regulation in preschool and children, it covers various aspects on joint attention and dives deeper into what really happens when an infant is engaging in joint attention. The result of the study demonstrates that there is a connection between self-regulation and regulation of execute attention with joint attention. The study also mentions that there needs to be a better understanding of this process as it might lead to a better understanding of social cognition. This article was written in 2011, so we do know more about how this process plays into social cognition and development, however more studies still need to be done examining various cultural aspects and developmental delays. That being said, the research article adds the ability to gain a clearer understanding on what exactly joint attention is, how it works, and how children engage in it within other areas of development.

This innate developmental tool is so important. It allows your child to engage and connect with you in such a simple, unspoken manor while also providing learning experiences that help your child socially, emotionally, and even linguistically. Next time you are with your little one, pay attention to how they exhibit their own forms of joint attention. You might catch them gazing at what you are looking at every once in a while!

Read the full article here!

Mikayla Clemens

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS