Corrine the Study Girl

This past few months Corrine has been participating in a study through the University of Iowa. They are studying children (ages 4-6 this year) who do and do not stutter. Corrine is in the control group since she does not stutter. Every summer for the next 4 years, she will go in and do the same things she did this year.

The first 2 visits she sat in a room and just talked to Wendy, the study director, while they video taped her. I was able to help out and spend some time talking with her and playing play-doh during a visit.

The next visit she got to put sensors all over her face and talk while she was videotaped. They took her picture with a Polaroid and gave us a copy. She got to pick a sticker for each part of the visit, so she came away with a very neat sticker picture.



Then the next visit they had her put a special hat on that had sensors all over it, and then some on her face and behind her ears. Corrine was not going for it. She had to take her headband off, and she didn't want to. She ended up sitting on my lap and getting it on. They have to put gel into each sensor hole, which takes about 20 minutes. Once she got back into the study room, she was comfortable with Wendy and what they were doing. This day she had to watch a colored TV screen that made sounds-not the most entertaining thing to do.



After this visit the study director changed from Wendy to Amanda. Corrine really bonded with Wendy, so she was sad to see her go. It ended up we have meet Amanda before from other language studies the kids have done. It was nice to put a face with the name.

The last visit for the year, she put the hat back on. This time we knew the day before and were able to be prepared for it. We made sure her hair was down with nothing in it. She made sure to bring Baby Alive with her. She sat right down and watched Dora as they put the hat on. They she went back into the room where she watched penguin cartoons. The cartoons had grammatical errors and different languages on them. They were watching her brain patterns to see how she responded to the errors and different languages. They also were monitoring her blinking, so she had sensors right next to her eyes.

During this visit, we got to see Hugo, who Ammon did a 9 visit study with. He gave the kids a kit-kat, which of course they all loved.



After each visit, she got to pick a small prize. She always picked a fancy lip gloss-either Dora or Princess. On the last visit she got to pick a big prize. She picked a white dog that had clothes and a bone. She also gets paid for this study. She gets to go buy something-probably a barbie with her money.

I was very proud of her for getting the sensors and hat put on, and doing everything they asked her to do.