The Interdisciplinary Center for Research on Early Childhood Issues and Initiatives was established by the College of Education and Human Development in 1999 to conduct and disseminate research about the development and education of young children.

The Interdisciplinary Center's mission is to encourage research activities by faculty within the College of Education and Human Development and in departments from across the university and the nation with complementary research strengths in areas such as early and middle childhood education, family therapy, music, pediatrics, psychiatry, psychology, public policy, speech pathology, social work, and teacher preparation.

Faculty

Dr. Victoria Molfese is the center director. Faculty currently working on center projects include:

• E. Todd Brown (Teaching and Learning) who is an expert in early mathematics education;
• Dennis Molfese (Birth defects Center) who is an expert in brain-behavior relations in cognitive processing;
• Faye Jones (Pediatrics) who is an expert on the impacts of health and nutrition on early literacy development;
• and Kathy Rudasill (Educational and Counseling Psychology) who is an expert in temperament and early learning;

Faculty have teaching responsibilities within their home departments and the center supports research and scholarly activities of faculty and students.

Research

The Center's establishment came in response to the growing national recognition that the early years of children's development are critical, with long term consequences.

One critical area of national attention is learning disabilities. Recent research has shown that children identified with learning or reading disabilities in elementary school are identifiable much earlier. Much of this research is focusing on the early identification of foundation deficits in language and reading skills that characterize as many as 80 percent of the children with learning disabilities. There is evidence that effective intervention can be applied in very early childhood and result in significant gains in growth of language and reading skills. An important benefit of linking the early identification of learning disabilities with subsequent early intervention is the increased probability of remediating problems before secondary consequences, such as emotional, self-concept and behavioral difficulties, manifest themselves.