Data Collection

Preparing to Collect Data

You know your baby – and your home environment and life flow – best. Some things to consider to help your HUGS session go smoothly are listed below. They may apply to your situation.

• Plan to use HUGS when your baby is calm and alert, not sleepy, fussy, or hungry.

• Plan to use HUGS when you, the parent/caregiver, are not under stress.

• Having another adult or older child to support you could be helpful.

• Check for (and remove) distractions in the room that could interfere with your baby’s attention to the HUGS toys: TV/radio/music, ceiling fan, other young children playing. We have seen babies get distracted by these ordinary things in the home environment!

• Make sure that the room in which you choose to do HUGS is well lit, and your baby is not in shadow.

• Make sure that the room in which you choose to do HUGS is not too warm or cold for your baby to be comfortable.

• If at any time your infant becomes distressed, please comfort him/her and resume the HUGS session at another time.

The HUGS "Costume"

• The machine learning technique we use to track your baby's movements produces better results when the joint segments are clear.

• We have provided two onsies that might be appropriate to dress your baby in before capturing HUGS data.

• This is completely optional, and they will only be appropriate while the weather is warm. If your baby can be sleeveless, that is optimal.

• Otherwise, dressing him/her in something that isn't bulky, doesn't create wrinkles that obscure where shoulders, elbows and wrists are, would be great.

Hand Circumference and Arm Length

• To provide "ground truth" for the machine learning algorithm, we need to record how long the segments of your baby's arms are as well as his/her hand circumference.

• Click here for directions and options for recording.

Baby Seat

• Your baby can sit in his/her own usual infant seat to interact with HUGS. We will work together over Zoom to make the necessary adjustments.

• We expect that your baby will transition to a different seat as s/he grows over the course of the study. We can Zoom again to re-adjust the procedure if needed.

Data Collection Procedure

• Data collection is divided into two (2) segments:

  • 1. Recording how your baby interacts with the bar toy and the forces s/he generates when grasping it (GO HUGS)

       • Recording time: 6 minutes

    2. Recording your baby's spontaneous movements, what s/he does in the absence of a specific stimulus like the bar toy (No Touch)

       • Recording time: 3 minutes

• You can do both segments during the same HUGS session in any order you like.

• You can also take a break in between segments. We ask that you do them both on the same day, however.

• Once you learn the system and procedure, we estimate that the whole session will take about 30 minutes.

• Navigate to COMPONENTS to see and read about the seven (7) main parts of the HUGS system.

• Navigate to ASSEMBLY to see videos and read about how to set up the HUGS system.