Barnard Psych Dept. Knows Where Your Children Are

When presented with the image of people taking notes on the interactions of others through one-way glass, one normally assumes a police interrogation. At Barnard College, however, the subjects are toddlers, and the observers are students.

The Barnard Center for Toddler Development is a curious place for both childcare and Barnard academics. Tovah Klein, director of the center and professor of psychology at Barnard, notes, “If you send your child here, you are agreeing to become part of an academic community.”

Classrooms serve as a first socialization experience for children 19-35 months of age and as a support system for the parents. At the center, they also supply roughly 150-200 undergraduates a year with observation, research opportunities, and hands-on learning experiences.

The center operates in conjunction with two classes at Barnard—a developmental psychology lab and a senior seminar on toddler development. Students from these classes observe the children a one-way glass.

Ilana Kellerman, BC ’07, has returned to the center as a teacher and full-time research assistant after participating in a senior seminar. “It’s fun to bring it [the experience of observing the children] back to the classroom,” she said. “We’d talk about an idea, and then we’d be like, ‘Oh, how did we see this in the center?’”

The center has become much more popular since its opening in 1973 when the director literally pulled in customers off the street. The center’s “substantial” waiting list seems to suggest that it is meeting the needs of the community. In recent years, the center has attracted several high-profile toddlers, notably the children of Jerry Seinfeld, and Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick. On this, Klein notes, “When you have a toddler, all parents are equal. They are all struggling with sleep, eating, tantrums, and setting limits. It doesn’t matter who you are—if your kid didn’t sleep last night, when you come in here, you’re going to be tired—that’s the reality of it.”

Experiments are periodically performed on the children, who have no idea they are the subjects of observation or experimentation. Parents are required to sign consent forms, but the children are deemed too young to be required to assent.

Despite the high profile reputation of the center, some have their doubts as to its effectiveness. Gail Ionescu, who operates another early childhood education center in Manhattan, questions the value of such an experiment.

“Does it influence a child to be in a setting where research is being done in terms of an adult’s interaction with the children?” Ionescu asked. “Do the adults change the way they approach the children if they know they are being observed? Does it change their sense of abandon and spontaneity?”.

The toddler classes are divided into morning and afternoon sessions that meet once or twice a week. Each class enrolls 12 toddlers and is structured to maintain an equal number of boys and girls from diverse backgrounds.

“I think I cut it all ways,” Klein said. “We have children paying almost nothing to come here, as well as families paying full tuition and generous donors. We have two-parent families. We have older and single parents who have adopted children. We have two-daddy families, and we have two-mommy families.” Families come from all areas of New York—and even New Jersey—with sometimes only a single similarity between them: each family wants this type of a first socialization experience for its child.

Parents must be willing to invest a great deal of time to the center, as they are required to accompany their children to class for the first four weeks. Parents and children familiarize themselves with the classroom together, which Klein said makes separation easier at the end of four weeks.

Rachael Gashkoff can be reached at news@columbiaspectator.com