Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

At this time, we are recruiting participants between the ages of 3 and 7. However, we may not always have active studies for all these ages. Therefore, after you have signed up, we will email you whenever there is a study that your child is eligible for!

Please fill out a separate sign-up form for each child who is between the ages of 3 and 7. We will then contact you with studies that your children are eligible for!

In appreciation of your child’s participation, your child’s name will be entered into a $50 Amazon giftcard draw each time they participate. A winner will be drawn every 50 participants.

Most appointments are between 10 and 25 minutes in length. The specific length will be mentioned in the study description we email you.

If you’re interested, please sign up here!

We will email you with more information about what studies your child(ren) are eligible for and instructions on picking a time to participate!

You should hear from us within a couple of days with more information. If your child is eligible for a study at that time we will include that information as well.

We will introduce ourselves, explain the study and then share our screen with you. Your child will watch the screen and we will ask some simple questions for them to answer. During this time, we will be screen recording so we can go back and listen to what your child answered. We ask that parents turn their back from the screen to prevent influencing the child’s answers. If you want to see what your child saw, we are more than happy to show you once your child has completed the study.

Due to the nature of our studies, we suggest you use devices that have larger screens (for your child to see the presentation) and that also have a camera (for our recording purposes). Thus, we prefer that you use a tablet or a computer with a camera if you have access to one.

Our video calls will be held using Zoom. You do not need to download the Zoom application in order for the video call to work. All you need to do is click on the provided meeting link and it will connect us! For additional information on how to use Zoom for our online meeting, please click here.

If you already have the Zoom application on your computer, feel free to use the downloaded application for our meeting!

Yes - if you would like to ensure that your microphone and webcam are working before your scheduled appointment, you can go to https://www.zoom.us/test and hit the join button. This will walk you through a series of tests to ensure everything is working properly.

Most of our studies involve recording the video call in order to ensure we haven’t missed anything your child has said. It is only used for the researcher to go back and double check your child’s responses at a later time. However, if you are not comfortable with this, please let us know.

You and your child(ren)’s personal information is not shared with anyone. To protect your personal information, we use participant codes (e.g., Study Name -Child001) that do not have identifying information to record any data collected. The collected, anonymized group data is then used within the scientific community.

Of course! You can find the publications for each lab here.

Yes! We will continue to contact you every time your child is eligible for one of our studies. If you live locally to the University of Waterloo, you can also sign-up to participate in in-person research at: Sign-Up | Infant & Child Studies Group

You can also check out Children Helping Science for online studies your child can get involved in from psychology labs around the world!

Please email us at developmentalonline@uwaterloo.ca

Right now, each study only involves a single appointment. However, we will contact you when your child is eligible for new studies and you can choose whether to participate at that time.