3, 2, 1 Test

Last week I enrolled Luke in a study at UW. It sounded innocent enough, but did have a few twists. The idea is supposed to study the self control of 3 yos, then follow up at 9 month intervals to see how they mature. It seemed like more like a game to see how to stress out a kid. In one test the researcher asked Luke to pet a spider in the box, when he went to do it, the spider jumped. Another was a locked box with a prize in it, but none of the keys worked. Then Luke and I played with a box of toys but couldn't with the cool toys nearby. Finally a new girl walked in the room with a clown mask. I figured of all the tricks, this one would get our little clown-phobe, but it didn't faze him. The next 3 days he put sticks under his tongue twice a day to collect saliva to measure a stress hormone, cortisol. He actually seemed to enjoy all aspects of the tests, not stressed at all, and earned $100 in the process. Way to go, Luke!