CCF director Dr. Mandy Maguire and faculty member Dr. Jackie Nelson recently studied the impact of adult-to-child ratio within a household, as well as the number of total occupants, on children's language development. Their study found that having more adults in a household is beneficial, but exactly why and under what conditions requires further exploration, Maguire said. Read more...

CCF students are presenting research at national conferences this spring, including the Madonna Motor Speech Conference and Cognitive Development Society (CDS). Former REU student Janine Settle presented "Relationships between performance on a sign language production task and motor skill in children with developmental language disorder" in California with mentors from the Language in Motion Lab. "I am so thankful for the opportunity to have attended and presented at the Madonna Motor Speech Conference!" Settle said. "It was only through the support of my REU mentors that I could have accomplished this. At the conference, I learned so much from other professionals and I was able to see firsthand how science comes together to progress into the future. It has me very excited about my OT journey and what I will begin to learn this coming Fall." Former REU students Yanet Admasu and Enrico Young are presenting at CDS this week on "How does adult and child language use during mealtimes impact children's language abilities in Spanish-speaking homes" with Dr. Mandy Maguire as mentor.

CCF is again certified by local nonprofit CNM as "CNM Certified" for 2024, affirming 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. CCF regularly collects and analyzes data related to our outreach programs, including measures of positive parenting practices, results of children's developmental screenings, and surveys of students' skill development as a result of their participation in our work.

Join the Center for Children and Families for the University's annual day of giving on April 3rd - 4th. CCF will be raising funds to support our outreach and training initiatives. Early giving is available now! Challenges and matches will make your gift go further. Let's #COMETogetherUTD and go for the gold!

It's been an incredibly exciting and busy month! We are working hard to expand our student training initiatives. By providing a unique opportunity for students to apply what they learn in the classroom in a way to help support families in their community, we are able to train the next generation of developmental scientists and practitioners to serve the DFW community and beyond for generations to come. Thanks to support from the Rees Jones Foundation and Carl B. and Florence E. King Foundation, we are holding two Screening Fairs in the next month, identifying children in need of early intervention and supporting their connection with services. Through these fairs, we can also directly connect our research and researchers with the families in a way that allows them to have a voice in the science we do and benefit from it. I'm thrilled to lead these efforts.

-Mandy Maguire, PhD, Associate Professor, Director, Center for Children and Families, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences