Project team members:

• Prof. Maja Cepanec, PhD
• Assis. Prof. Ana Katušić, PhD

Object exploration and manipulation in infants (such as touching, observing, and mouthing) provides insight into early cognitive, motor, and socioemotional development and is a fundamental activity for early learning. During their curious and exploratory actions, infants often interact with adults who adjust their own behavior and influence the variety of objects available for exploration. Unlike most research that examines the isolated effects of individual developmental factors, this project offers an integrated perspective on the systemic relationships among the child s spontaneous behavior, the behavior of nearby adults, and the quality of the physical environment. This approach enables an understanding of early developmental pathways from the perspective of dynamic interrelationships, consistent with the theory of developmental cascades, which forms the basis of this project proposal. The goal of this project is to determine the relationship between spontaneous exploratory behavior in infants and variability in fine motor skills, parental interaction, and the physical environment in both term and preterm infants. The project has significant translational potential for developing practical guidelines for early intervention in children with developmental disabilities, as it examines the effects of environmental factors.