So far I've now coded 60 trials (videos)! to say I only started properly independently coding on Monday I'm really happy with this!

I had a meeting with my supervisor to discuss how my research is going how far - we talked about the coding scheme I created and that I'm happy that it has everything covered on it in terms of the videos I've watched so far apart from a few instances were a mother has done something really random to direct her infants attention (which I've just coded as other!)

We discussed the things I'm finding hardest which is when an attention directing strategy is subjective for example - some items on the coding scheme are "putting head close to infant" and "leaning head toward the object". These two in particular are very hard to code - we say the lean should be around 45 degrees but this is very hard to work out. Often when I'm coding these I write notes to flag these up if I'm really unsure. A good way to think of it is - is this head lean actually contributing to getting the infants attention or trying to direct their attention to the object.

Another thing I noted that I'm struggling so far is being able to concentrate on the coding all day - I found going to the library helped and my supervisor suggested I aim to code less videos a day but break it up with reading or other jobs I need to do for the research. Hopefully I will get used to these days of complete coding!

Me and my supervisor also discussed preparations for the presentation I will be giving to her lab group of my research when its finished. Now that I have a flavor of what the data is like I can start to think of what my overall research aims will be when it comes to the data analysis.

So next week once I have hopefully started to code some trials were the mothers failed to direct their infants attention to the object (compared to the trials that passed that I'm coding at the moment) I'll be able to see if there are any big differences in the frequency, duration and types of strategies as well as how the mother interacts with the child e.g. is she less enthusiastic.

I'll also be doing some background research for my report especially on how my research has compared to more lab based attention directing.

The plan for next week then is to finish the passed trials, start the failed trials and start preparing for my data analysis and research presentation by reading and starting making some notes of where I want to go with my data.

So far I think my strengths have been my ability to pick up the coding and having to put trust in myself with this (something I'm usually nervous about).

I feel like I need to work on using my time more effectively which is something I'm hoping to do more next week when I start to break up my coding with reading and planning.

Despite it being a long week, I've really loved having my own research project to work on!