Dr. Sanchez is investigating a new theory of speech development in infants. She begins by conducting a cross-sectional study to determine how speech progresses from infancy to early childhood. From there, she uses that information to conduct an experiment that trains several parents to interact with their infants in certain ways she thinks will enhance their speech. She then follows up on these children every 4 months for 3 years. Dr. Sanchez is using the ________ approach.

The converging methods apporach is a recent approach in the field of developmental psychology. The main assumption is that researchers can use a variety of methodological tools and methods, to answer both new and classical developmental questions. In this case, the research design that Dr. Sanchez is using involves a cross-sectional study, an experimental design and a longitudinal study. All of the methods take place at different stages of the research and all of them shed light on a different angle of speech development.