General information about the examination for parents and guardians:

Dear parents and guardians,

Thank you for your interest and willingness to participate in our study together with your child. This helps to obtain findings on the development of infants in the areas of vision and hearing after premature birth, which could later serve as a basis for better early support of everyday skills after premature birth.

As part of the study, we are using talking faces to investigate how the perception of faces and the understanding of language are related during the first months of life. When evaluating the study results, our conclusions will be based on measurements of your child's gaze behaviour and neuronal activation patterns. The study also aims to investigate which conditions promote favourable development. In order to identify such conditions, we will ask you some questions.

Procedure of the study

The study consists of two parts and lasts a maximum of one hour.

Part 1: We will ask you to answer some questions about yourself and your family. The questions will mainly relate to how you typically think and feel and how you interact with your child. We will also ask you to indicate your age, gender, education level and academic appointment in one of the questionnaires. These questions will also refer to your partner, if applicable. This information is necessary for the description of the sample in scientific publications. Your data will only be reported as summarised data in scientific publications and will never refer to individuals who participated in the study.

Part 2: After you have answered the questions, we would like to carry out a short experiment with your child in your presence. This involves the presentation of talking faces (adult faces uttering short sounds) on a large screen and the observation of your child's gaze time. We would like to ask you to consent to your child's neuronal activity being measured during the experiment using a near-infrared spectroscope (more information below).

Reimbursement of expenses

You will receive compensation of €20 for participating in the study.