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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The overall purpose of this research is to examine why human capital-oriented intervention programs and policies, directed at children in the preschool, middle childhood, and adolescent stages of development, have the effects, non-effects, and, in some cases, perverse effects that they do.
The purpose of the IDEA Data Center is to improve the capacity of States to meet their Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) data collection and reporting requirements under sections 616 and 618 of the IDEA.
The purpose of this project is to conduct a validation study of center-based programs registered in ExceleRate Illinois as well as a child outcomes study of preschool-aged children. Through gathering of program and classroom observations; director, teacher, and parent surveys; and child assessments, results will help examine the extent to which ExceleRate Illinois meaningfully distinguishes program quality and the extent to which rating levels relate to child outcomes.
As the Geoleads for their Differentiated Assistance Region, Placer and Sacramento County Offices of Education are seeking support for the capacity development of their county office staff in best practices of implementation science to support implementation of improvement strategies within their differentiated system of support for local education agencies (LEAs). To support development of internal implementation capacity, the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) will provide virtual training, coaching, and consultation supports.
The Triple P Implementation Evaluation (TPIE) supports evaluation activities related to ongoing implementation of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program system of interventions in two North Carolina counties. Triple P is an evidence-based, community-wide parenting and family support system to promote the social, emotional, health, and behavioral wellbeing of children.
Evidence-supported programs, practices, and policies are most effective when they are well-implemented by the responsible organization(s). Even when attempting to use continuous improvement strategies, process improvements often fail to reach effectiveness and learning expectations except when certain conditions and study processes are actively adopted. Large to mid-size systems (including state, local criminal, and juvenile justice systems) tend to engage policies and programs in reactive modes, often leaving the required engineering of building proactive, effective organizational changes to chance. Further, many of the problems that bring youth into the juvenile justice system can be prevented if communities and providers effectively deliver evidence-supported interventions as adapted to their contexts.
Get Ready Guilford is a collaborative effort to build a connected, innovative system of care for Guilford county’s youngest children and their families. Through the proposed project, the Impact Center at FPG’s support team will provide deep implementation support focused on shared learning, priority-setting, and the development and execution of cross-partner action plans across the Get Ready Guilford initiative. This support will center on facilitating cross-partner sensemaking and coordination and supporting partners as they carry out agreed-upon priorities. The project aims to advance a more coordinated, community-shaped early childhood system in Guilford County.
The goal of this study is to evaluate whether an integrated behavioral parenting training and adolescent driver education program improves a variety of adolescent driving, as well as parent-adolescent relationship, outcomes relative to adolescents who only receive a driver education program.
This study will investigate the impact of the Advancing Social-Communication and Play (ASAP) intervention on school-aged students with ASD, and the feasibility of the ASAP intervention in elementary schools. The study is expected to provide valuable data on the effect of the ASAP intervention on elementary school students. Additionally, the study will offer important information on adapting preschool interventions for elementary school settings.
This project will compare the developmental learning trajectories of children who attend early childhood programs with those of children who do not attend such programs and examine the factors that influence changes in those trajectories.
The purpose of this project is to support the further validation and refinement of a new measure, the Inclusive Classroom Profile (ICP). The study will assess the measure’s feasibility of implementation and psychometric properties in pre-k inclusive classrooms.
This project is grounded in a science education partnership between Kidzu Children’s Museum and FPG’s STEM Innovation for Inclusion in Early Education Center (STEMIE). The project will include sharing resources and spaces to develop and implement playgroups for pre-K children with a variety of abilities and their caregivers with specific STEM related goals and activities through the sequence of playgroups.
The study presented in this proposal is a collaborative effort between the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) and the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The intended outcomes of this program are to positively impact inclusion in early childhood classrooms and kindergarten readiness for children with disabilities. Consisting of a 4 day, in-person, professional development (PD) opportunity, virtual/in-person coaching, and Networked Improvement Community (NIC) meetings that are targeted to meet the individual support needs of the participants, we propose a three-phase process. Phase 1 includes targeted observations of inclusive STEM practices. Phase 2 includes a 4-day in-person PD opportunity, planned and facilitated by UMBC and STEMIE. PD sessions will be designed to provide participants with the opportunity to learn and expand their knowledge and sharpen their skills on inclusive STEM teaching. Phase 3 sessions will be developed based on observed needs of the participating teachers and support participants in using STEMIE resources (e.g. learning trajectories) within the scope of their own curriculum. This will be done via a series of individual coaching and NIC meetings to allow for collaborative problem solving with investigators serving as facilitators. The final phase (Phase 4) will include targeted observations of participants to assess progress.
The pilot study presented in this proposal is a collaborative effort between the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) and the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The intended outcomes of this program are to positively impact inclusion in early childhood classrooms and kindergarten readiness for children with disabilities. Consisting of a 5 day, in-person, professional development (PD) opportunity and Networked Improvement Community (NIC) meetings that are targeted to meet the individual needs of the participants, we propose a three-phase process. Phase 1 includes targeted observations of inclusive STEM practices. Phase 2 includes a 5-day PD opportunity, planned and facilitated by UMBC and STEMIE. PD sessions will be designed to foster the participants’ engagement in inclusive STEM teaching. Phase 2 sessions will be developed based on observed needs of the participating teachers and support participants in using STEMIE resources (e.g. learning trajectories) within the scope of their own curriculum. A series of NIC meetings will be held focusing on areas of need identified by the participants to allow for collaborative problem solving with investigators serving as facilitators. The final phase (Phase 3) will include targeted observations of participants to assess progress.
This research will extend the use of work systems -- an evidence-based practice with school-aged children that provides visual information about what one is expected to do -- to adolescents and adults.
The National Professional Development Center on Autism (NPDC) developed a professional development model for increasing the use of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in schools. The NPDC model includes information on goal attainment scale to monitor student progress, an overview of EBPs, a process of selecting EBPs. Ann Sam, PhD, will partner with Guilford County Schools to provide training on these components. Additionally, she will provide an overview of foundational EBPs (reinforcement, prompting, and visual supports). Training will include specific practice to promote independence and adaptive/vocational skills, social communication needs of students, and promote school readiness, academics and behavior. Training will occur over a two-day period.
The rapid increase in the presence of autistic students in U.S. education systems has placed a great demand for education services, and federal law states that such services and instruction must be based on evidence-based practices (EBPs). Teachers, however, report that they lack the information and preparation for using EBPs and instruction for autistic students in their classrooms. Given technological advances in recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) holds great promise for supporting teachers’ use of EBPs to design and deliver personalized programs for autistic students based on their individual abilities and needs. The purpose of this project is to develop an AI-assisted application (called the IEP2EBP) that teachers will use to select the most efficacious autism intervention practices, link the most effective practices to students’ individual learning goals, access resources for applying the practices, and assessing student outcomes.
Successful adoption, implementation, improvement, and scale of the Triple P system across the Carolinas holds the promise of improving child health outcomes, including reduced rates of child abuse, reduced out of home foster care placement, and fewer hospital visits due to child abuse injuries. Continued collaboration and co-creation is the foundation for ongoing work to provide proactive and responsive implementation support, system-wide support and dissemination of effective implementation approaches, and develop the team of professionals providing these essential supports.
Although the first EHDI programs in the United States were established more than 20 years ago, most states/territories are not yet able to document the receipt of essential early intervention services and provide documentation of outcomes resulting from early intervention services. Lacking such documentation, it is unclear whether states/systems are accomplishing the goals of ensuring all babies who are D/HH receive early intervention and minimizing the communication delays typically observed in late-identified children who are D/HH. Establishing an IPA with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will assist CDC EHDI in (1) engaging with Part C early intervention programs; (2) developing strategies to assist state EHDI programs in identifying best practices/models to collaborate with Part C programs to address issues of ensuring the provision and documentation of essential early intervention services; (3) supporting assessment of outcomes among babies who are D/HH; and (4) meeting the requirements of the EHDI Act of 2022.
This collaborative project with ITTI Care at Duke Center for Child & Family Policy will work to integrate trauma-informed care practices within infant-toddler childcare settings by evaluating existing training materials and suggesting revisions as necessary and designing comprehensive instructional strategy and training curricula for both coach-the-coach and direct-to-provider professional development efforts.
In a collaborative project with ITTI Care at Duke Center for Child & Family Policy, Wendy Morgan will work to integrate trauma-informed care practices within infant-toddler child care settings by evaluating existing training materials and suggesting revisions as necessary and designing comprehensive instructional strategy and training curricula for both coach-the-coach and direct-to-provider professional development efforts.
The Joint Attention Mediated Learning Intervention for Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Their Families project is being conducted at three sites: Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, Indiana University, and University of Kansas. The project is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, and the Principal Investigator is Dr. Hannah Schertz at Indiana University.
This project created More Than Baby Talk, a brief guide that describes ten practices that early childhood teachers can use to foster language and communication skills among infants and toddlers. The guidelines are based upon the latest research findings on optimal adult-child interactions for promoting strong language and communication skills among young children.
Through “Eat, Play, Move!” the FPG Child Care Program will educate and engage teachers, children, and families in nutritional practices that support children’s health and increase purposeful physical activity. Using affordable resources, intervention strategies will include targeted staff education, curriculum activities, and community collaborations. Activities will include applications of ChooseMyPlate and yoga practice.
TRI will design a series of six parent workshops to build foundational literacy skills for children aged six months to five years. These workshops will be presented by community workers from El Centro Hispano. TRI will provide training for the community workers and will compile materials including books in Spanish and other educational resources (magnetic letters, activity cards) for parents to use.
This project will analyze the psychometric properties of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-3rd Edition (ECERS-3)—the latest version of the most widely used tool for assessing quality in early childhood classrooms—ensuring that it accurately measures program quality. Additionally, the project will establish an alternative scoring that will provide users with highly detailed and nuanced information about classrooms that can be used to better assess and support quality.
University of Florida’s Lastinger Center for Learning is seeking support for capacity development in best practices of implementation science. Specifically, the Lastinger Center is looking for a two-phase approach. In Phase 1, exploration activities to support development of a team, assessment of opportunities and needs, readiness activities, and recommendations for options are proposed to support overall readiness and identification of specific areas of focus for the Center to develop internal implementation science capacity
We are examining psychiatric and health outcomes in a 5-year follow-up of 200 well-characterized, very high-risk, maltreated and non-maltreated children. This is an ideal study in which to examine patterns of stability and change in the regulation of stress-sensitive genes over time.
