With a $3.5 million grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH), FPG Faculty Fellows Kara Hume, PhD, Brianne Tomaszewski, PhD, will lead research that aims to increase the physical activity of adults with intellectual disabilities in an effort to support their physical and mental health and promote healthy aging.

Early care and education provide a strong foundation for children's academic success and overall well-being. This focus area has been central to the work of the FPG since its founding more than 50 years ago. And that is why we were especially pleased to host a group of participants from Building Bright Futures―a pilot early childhood education pre-apprenticeship-to-apprenticeship program within the NCBCE―for a morning of presentations and an open discussion.

FPG’s Implementation Summer Internship Program, a paid opportunity for masters' and doctoral students, recently wrapped up. The program, which is designed to create a challenging and meaningful professional experience, exposes interns to implementation practice and research across a variety of fields and practice settings. The four interns of this year’s cohort recently took time to reflect on their experiences in the internship program and answer a few questions.

Developing and retaining well-trained teachers and aides is critically important to ensure high quality early childhood education programs, but keeping qualified early childhood educators on staff has always been a challenge. New research—led by FPG Senior Research Scientists Donna Bryant, PhD, and Noreen Yazejian, PhD—investigates the timing of staff turnover and the characteristics associated with this turnover.

In June 2023, researchers from the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute issued, “Longitudinal Study of Georgia's Pre-K Program Final Report: Pre-K Through 4th Grade.” This longitudinal study followed a statewide sample of 1,169 children who attended Georgia’s Pre-K Program in 2013–14 through their 4th grade year in 2018–19.

A few years ago, educators in Wyoming contacted FPG's Sherri Britt Williams and Catasha Williams with the dream to improve outcomes for children with disabilities. Through a series of phone calls, the group determined the outline of that dream, which resulted in state leaders using evidence-based practices (EBPs) with an implementation framework.

In April 2023, the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute's (FPG) FRONTIER program sponsored a statewide summit, “Leveraging North Carolina’s Assets to Prevent Child Trauma." During the two-day event, certain themes arose repeatedly around several key topics. A series of articles were produced to explore those themes in greater detail.

On Friday, June 9, Brian Boyd, PhD, interim director of the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and William C. Friday Distinguished Professor of Education in the UNC School of Education, hosted the first in-person meeting of the Black Empowerment in Autism Network, which met in Peabody Hall on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus.

Two themes are increasing in current autism research: how to be more inclusive of autistic voices and self-advocates and how to deal with longstanding racial and ethnic disparities. Brian Boyd, interim director of FPG and William C. Friday Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at UNC-Chapel Hill, is deeply committed to addressing these issues.