CCF faculty affiliate Dr. Lisa Goffman recently secured a five-year, $3 million federal grant to study sequential pattern learning in children with developmental language disorder. Developmental language disorder (DLD) affects approximately 7% of 5-year-old children and has long-term negative academic, social and economic outcomes. This research will investigate whether a child's slower learning of sequential patterns is linked to DLD. "Our research may provide both earlier predictors and more direct interventions to address a core problem in DLD,” Goffman said. “The earlier you adjust a child’s environment, the more plastic their brain is, the more effective interventions are.” Read More...

We had a blast celebrating babies during First3Years' 3rd annual Baby Day event! CCF provided live and on-demand sessions for parents/caregivers and their children.

In case you weren't able to attend, see below for videos of the sessions:

"Promoting Your Child's Language Development During Play" with CCF student worker and BBS graduate student Irina Kavrakova

"Little Toddlers, BIG Emotions" with UTD faculty member Dr. Jackie Nelson

"Fun for Families, Serious for Science" with UTD faculty member Dr. Candice Mills

Join us on Friday February 26th at 9:30am CST for an important conversation with Dr. Salena Brody on how and where children receive information about racial injustice and effective methods for reducing biases. The lectures are free and open to the public. Click this link on February 26th to join us!

In case you missed it, see here for slides, a handout, and a video of Dr. Meghan Swanson's talk on supporting children's language learning.

CCF worked closely with CNM over the past year to implement their CNM-pact data visualization tool to help us track, analyze, evaluate, and report our outreach program outcomes. We recently received certification from CNM, confirming that our organization "is using a valid methodology for collecting, analyzing and reporting program outcomes; making data-driven decisions; improving program performance; and engaging stakeholders in a meaningful way."

We are thinking of you all as we process the damage from the recent winter storm and look to rebuilding homes and businesses. The emotional toll may be overwhelming for some. We are here to support parents in need of resources and referrals for child and family concerns; please reach out. As we reconnect with students and parents this week in our service-learning class and playful learning programs, we bring hope of warmer days and center ourselves on the resilience of young children's smiles.