You are here: Home → Early Intervention for Families Lab

 

 

 

 

Research projects in the Early Intervention for Families Lab are focused on understanding young children’s self regulation and its significance for academic achievement and social-emotional competence. Our primary focus is on children who face risk of difficult adjustments to school and low academic achievement due to economic disadvantage or developmental delays.  Research from our lab has contributed to the growing literature that demonstrates that child characteristics (e.g., temperament) and family characteristics (parental sensitivity, parenting strategies, parent temperament, maternal depression, socioeconomic status, etc.) relate to children's self regulation, attentional processes and social-emotional behaviors. 

2011-2012  The Resilient Families Project

We are partnering with the Wayside Christian Mission at Hotel Louisville to provide a program for families designed to strengthen resilient skills and parenting strategies. This project is supported by the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.  Students working on this project include: Chiyonne Bruce, Teresa Hardin, Kayla Thornberry, Chelsea Woodfork, Kendrick Anderson, Valerie Mansfield, Mia Goff and Kimberly Bates.  The Co-Director of the Resilient Families Project is Dr. Lora Haynes, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Louisville.

2011-2012   Promoting Executive Functioning in Children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder

We are in the process of initiating a pilot study to assess the utility of a computerized memory training program to increase executive functioning skills in children diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder. This project is supported by the VPR  Office, Research Initiative Grant, University of Louisville. Students working on this project include: Akash Gupta and Cole Dabbs. This project is done in collaboration with Dr. Yasmin Senturias, Director of the FAS Center in the Department of Pediatrics, University of Louisville.

 

2011-2012   Strengthening Executive Functioning in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

We are working to design ipad 'app' technology and a system of interface implementation to provide children with ASD additional scaffolding to increase planning, memory and attention in school.We are seeking funding for this project currently. Our collaborators from the University of Louisville include Drs. Robert Pennington, Monica Delano, faculty from the Department of Special Education, College of Human Development and Education, and Dr. Roman Yampolskiy, a faculty member in the Department of Computer Engineering and Computer Science, Speed School of Engineering.

2011-2012 Goal Setting and Memory Book Work in Botswana

We are working to refine and evaluate curriculum materials designed to support goal setting and memory in children and adolescents who have experienced chronic stress and environmental hardship.  We are seeking funding for this project currently. Students working on this project include: Kelci Risner. This project is being done in collaboration with a boys home and orphanage in Botswana.

 

Early Intervention for Families Lab: Graduate Training

My three most recent graduate students include Tara Weatherholt and Crystal Day, enrolled in the Ph.D. Program in Experimental Psychology: Developmental Sciences, and Paulette Flores enrolled in the Ph.D.Program in Clinical Psychology.   Their dissertation projects are described below.

**Depression and Child Outcomes in African-American Families. The dissertation project  by Paulette Flores examines risk and protective factors that impact social-emotional competence in African-American toddlers (completed August 2011).

Previous graduate students from the Early Intervention for Families Lab have taken research positions at educational consulting firms,  industry research and education research organizations as well as academic positions in colleges and universities. 

Barbara Burns: Professional Experiences in Applied Developmental Psychology 

My professional experiences support the research training and professional development of my graduate students.  Some recent highlights include: (1) Senior Consultant for the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Early Intervention Program.   I worked  as part of a team to design and implement a new service delivery model focused on family for 40,000 children between 0-3 in NYC with developmental delays disabilities. (2) Editor of the National Head Start Association peer-reviewed journal entitled NHSA Dialog: A Research to Practice Journal for the Early Intervention Field.  (3) Research Consultant for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Delays: Early Intervention Project  in Atlanta, GA.  The focus of this work was on promoting healthy parenting strategies and tools to promote child health and development.

Barbara Burns: Teaching at U of Louisville

As a Distinguished University Honors Fellow at the University of Louisville, I was given the opportunity to develop multidisciplinary courses for undergraduates in the university honors program. These courses reflect my major interests in applied developmental psychology and have included: Babies, Bonding and the Brain: What’s Love Got to Do With It;  Overcoming the Odds: Resilience in Children;  Reading, Writing and Toxics: Environmental Justice and Children’s Healthy Development;  Children’s Health and Development: Connecting Research to the Community; and Parenting: Science and Practice.  I have taught graduate courses entitled Applied Developmental Sciences,  Social Cognition and Development, and Parenting: Science and Practice as well as an undergraduate survey courses in Life Span Developmental Psychology (Psy 363).

2011-2012     In Fall, 2011, I will teach Peace and Nonviolence in Children and Adolescents (Psy 404). Students will study the peace psychology and violence prevention literature and complete a service learning project in the local school system in which they teach a ten-week violence prevention curriculum called SPAVA.  In Spring, 2011, I will teach an Honors Seminar entitled 'Death, Dying and Bereavement',  Students will learn the psychology literature on bereavement and grief and become active partners in the Louisville's Hosparus Program which provides support and resources for terminally ill patients.  In Spring, 2011, I will also teach Supporting Healthy Children in Botswana (Psych 409/571).  This course is part of the University of Louisville's International Service Learning Program.  Students take the course in the spring and then travel to Botswana, Africa in early May for ten days to complete service learning with children and families. (See picture above.)  For more information about the specifics of the Psychology 409/571 course in Botswana contact me at barbara.burns@louisville.edu .   Information about the ISLP program, such as enrollment procedures and additional costs, is available  at the U of Louisville ISLP website. A new course will be offered in Spring 2011 entitled 'Mindfulness and Energy Use' (Psyc 404/571).  Students will learn about the contribution of psychology to conservation and sustainability and learn mindfulness techniques. Check out the book 'Mindfully Green' by S. Kazan to get an idea of our approach.  This will be taught as a team including, Paul Salmon, an expert on mindfulness, and Russ Barnett, the Director of KIESD at U of Louisville. How can you change behavior to get people to wake up and start considering sustainability is the quest ion for the course.