Research is at the heart of all we do at the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute. As one of the nation's foremost multidisciplinary centers devoted to the study of children from infancy to adolescence, our scientists are committed to conducting research and evaluation studies that improve children's lives, support families, and inform public policy.
Learn more about our current projects by clicking on the links below. Change the project end date to view completed projects. And to stay up to date on news and events related to our work via social media, visit our Project Digital Directory.
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Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute will conduct a rigorous evaluation of Pennsylvania's state-funded pre-k program Pre-K Counts to determine whether the program is achieving its goal of building the necessary skills and competencies that enable three- and four-year-olds in Pennsylvania to be kindergarten-ready.
The North Carolina Office on Disability and Health is partnering with the National Center on Physical Activity and Disability to support activities related to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Physical Activity for People with Disabilities Information Resource Center.
Four postdoctoral fellows will receive training in two research areas: intervention programs for children and youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and Response to Intervention (RTI) for children with special educational needs. The primary focus of the training program will be on the development and evaluation of intervention research.
This postdoctoral research program will provide postdoctoral fellows with extensive research training in special education with a focus on the knowledge and skills needed to evaluate the efficacy of interventions and instructional practices for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The overarching goal of this program is to prepare four fellows (with 2 years of training each) to conduct high-quality special education research related to children and youth with ASD.
The research training fellowship plan includes 6 components: an individualized research plan, postdoctoral seminar on research methodology, statistical and research design coursework as appropriate, research apprenticeship with 2 or more research grants, research internship with FPG Data Management and Analysis Core, and specialized research training off site.
This study compares the developmental trajectories of pragmatic skills, the use of language in social contexts, among girls and boys with fragile X syndrome (FXS), Down syndrome (DS), and typical development (TD) and boys with autism spectrum disorder only (ASD-O) to determine whether individual differences in conversational discourse and narrative skills relate to FXS specifically or to either mental retardation (MR) or autism in general.
The purpose of this work is to develop a comprehensive and effective PreK Monitoring System for the Integrated Support for Learning, PK-8 Division at the Vermont Agency of Education. This new monitoring system will build upon existing monitoring systems and procedures to assess the quality of the state’s early learning and development programs. It will go beyond current systems to focus on all the components of a quality prekindergarten education program across the many types of settings in which prekindergarten education is offered in Vermont.
Exposure to heavy metals in utero, such as arsenic, may have negative effects on health and neurodevelopment of offspring. In North Carolina, arsenic has been found in the drinking water, making this an important public health concern. This study will be the first to examine the way in which arsenic exposure may alter the microbiome of pregnant women and their offspring.
The primary project goal is to prepare working professionals from diverse backgrounds to become interdisciplinary, collaborative leaders in early childhood special education implementing culturally responsive and evidence-based practices for facilitating the successful inclusion of young children with disabilities and their families in high need schools and community based programs.
The primary purposes of the project are to a) design and conduct a descriptive survey study the provides information about preschool special education programs and practices; b) conduct an evidence review of efficacious practices appropriate for preschool children with disabilities enrolled in special education programs; and c) design an impact evaluation study of practices that promote language, literacy, and socio-emotional skills for preschool children with disabilities.
The purpose of this project is to conduct a process evaluation of North Carolina’s Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program that will examine service integration and coordination and collaboration among agencies serving families with young children in seven NC communities.
The Frank Porter Graham Program on Mindfulness and Self-Compassion for Families is a suite of programs related to self-compassion in families and schools. Our mission is to bring specialized self-compassion training to teens, pre-teens, children, parents, educators, and all adults who traverse the lives of youth, with the ultimate goal of creating a community embued with greater compassion for ourselves and others.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate two group-based treatments: (1) the Program for Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS), which targets social skills, and (2) Unstuck and On Target (UOT), which targets executive function skills. The interventions are two 45-minute sessions per week across 16 weeks and will be implemented by school-based staff in middle schools in North Carolina and Southern California (San Diego area).
The NIRN will support the Permanency Innovations Initiative project by providing training and technical assistance based in implementation science and practice to refine, problem-solve, and strengthen the use of innovations to improve the safety and permanency outcomes of children and families.
This project will provide training and technical assistance to Long-Term Foster Care Grants in planning and implementing their innovative intervention strategies aimed at reducing the time in out-of-home care for long waiting children engaged in the child welfare system.
Promoting Academic Success (PAS) brought together networks of schools, communities, and families to promote systems change within local contexts to improve the academic and social-emotional outcomes of young boys. PAS focused primarily on two groups of boys, African Americans and Latinos, in systems where these groups of boys are disproportionately underperforming.
Developmental disparity exists between infants and toddlers raised in poverty and their peers growing up in more affluent families. Programs serving poor infants and toddlers typically focus on the overall level of child care quality with less attention paid to the effectiveness of specific activities taking place in the classroom. This study will develop and evaluate a set of activities for early childhood educators to use to promote the early communication and self-regulation skills of poor infants and toddlers.
This study aims to identify unobserved heterogeneity and capture complex patterns of program and classroom characteristics to inform targeted program quality improvement and teacher professional development, and identify program quality features and instructional practices that are beneficial for the Migrant and Seasonal Head Start children’s language and literacy development.
The purpose of this project is to develop and test an intervention to support the development of adolescents' self-regulation skills during the middle school years. The Self-Regulation Skills for Success (SRSS) intervention will adapt and integrate strategies from existing evidence-based programs guided by a theory of change that intentionally targets self-regulatory processes in need of support and development during early adolescence: immature cognitive controls, increased emotionality and stress reactivity, and responsivity to peers.
The NPDC will work with professionals from the Centre for Autism Research in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to establish and promote the provision of high quality programs and the use of evidence-based practices for learners with ASD and their families. The contract will support intensive didactic and site-based professional development in the United States and regular follow up and site visit in Saudi Arabia.
The purpose of the CAMH's Provincial System Support Program (PSSP) is to create and build the implementation capacity of regional and local Implementation Teams. Using Active Implementation frameworks, NIRN is supporting CAMH to develop the infrastructure for sustaining and scaling interventions in children’s mental health and addiction sectors across the Province.
This project conducted a process evaluation and short-term outcome evaluation of Miami-Dade County's Quality Counts initiative, a quality rating and improvement system (QRIS)and professional development initiative.
The purpose of this project was to work collaboratively with Quality Counts leaders and stakeholders to revise their logic model and discuss issues related to validating Quality Counts.
This project was a randomized control trial of the Partnerships for Inclusion (PFI) model of assessment-based, individualized, on-site consultation. The evaluation study was called QUINCE (Quality Interventions for Early Care and Education). Quality consultants from 24 community agencies in five states (California, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and North Carolina) participated as well as 108 child care teachers, 263 FCC home providers, and 710 children.
This project is adapting an existing R&R model for use with Latino dual language learners (DLLs) who are 4 years old and enrolled in center-based programs in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Primary project activities include developing the bilingual assessment and intervention components of R&R for use with DLL children; providing professional development and ongoing support to teachers who implement the R&R-DLL system in their classrooms; and conducting a pilot study to evaluate the implementation and preliminary efficacy of the model.
The RTT-ELC TA Center will provide technical assistance support services to implement the RTT-ELC program. Services will include creating individualized technical assistance plans with each state grantee; planning and setting up conferences where RTT-ELC program grantees and members can discuss progress, challenges, and best practices; and providing web-based communities of practice.
The purpose of this collaborative partnership is to bring together the expertise of three research centers from top-tier research universities for the purpose of (a) understanding the science behind how racism impacts the lives of young children of color and (b) developing tools to communicate this impact to people who are making daily decisions on behalf of the well-being of children—their parents, educators, clinical practitioners, and policymakers.
Persistent, and quite pervasive, racial disparities have been found between Black, autistic children and their white, autistic peers. These disparities range from notable inequities in the timeliness of diagnosis to receipt of substandard services to their under-representation in research studies. While key disparities have been documented, there is a need for increased attention on potential underlying drivers of these disparities that are rooted in the Black experience. We know from existing research on Black health and wellness that racism is linked to some poorer physical and mental health outcomes. This project will examine the impact of racism and resulting racial trauma on the mental health outcomes of Black parents of autistic children (ages 3 -9) as well as the downstream consequences that parental racial trauma has on child behavior and development.
FPG will collect data using our Snapshot tablet application during one day-long observation in fifty of the Winston-Salem Forsyth County School District’s pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classrooms. FPG will provide staff development for school and district personnel on the use of Snapshot data and other data for school improvement.
