baby mic vest

[Katie Alcock]

I have done something similar with a minidisc and a stereo tieclip
microphone, with a small, child-sized backpack.  This has the advantage that
the minidisc recorder is protected more, and is therefore suitable for
outside use.  We have been using it in dusty African villages, in fact,
where the children are also very mobile and may move from hut to hut.

A few of the 10 or so children we have used this with have been initially
reluctant to put on the backpack but all have managed it in the end, and
usually wanted to keep it after the session (so that we have started giving
it as a gift to the children involved).

We got our backpacks at the local market stall in the UK.  We had previously
tried hip-carried travel packs (of the variety that have a US name that is
highly unacceptable in the UK!), but when carried over the child's shoulder
they tended to slip off.

Katie Alcock


Katie Alcock, DPhil
Lecturer
Department of Psychology
University of Lancaster
Fylde College
Lancaster LA1 4YF
Tel 01524 593833
Fax 01524 593744