CCF Newsletter, Issue 86, June 2024

Newsletter, June 2024

CCF Welcomes New Staff

CCF is growing! In May, we welcomed Dr. Jingyi Xu as our postdoctoral fellow, supporting CCF's research and evaluation work and Andrea Olvera as our new coordinator of special programs. Dr. Xu is managing CCF outreach program data, identifying new research opportunities, and mentoring students. Andrea is supporting our Grow With Me program, conducting children's developmental screenings and providing referrals and support for intervention services when needed. Thank you to the UT Dallas Office of Research and Innovation and the Rees-Jones Foundation for supporting these positions!

"I’m thrilled to join the CCF family and continue my research on children’s and adolescents’ socioemotional development. I look forward to collaborating with CCF faculty, staff, and students on research, training, and practices that facilitate optimal child development and positive family dynamics, especially for those from historically marginalized groups." Dr. Jingyi Xu

"I am passionate to be part of CCF because the Grow With Me program has allowed me to see the positive impact of early child intervention in children from low-income communities. I truly enjoy helping parents connect with agencies to promote their child's school readiness. I'm super excited to be part of the CCF staff where I can contribute to helping families acquire a better quality of life by strengthening the foundation of their child’s future." Andrea Olvera

Dr. Pamela Rollins Receives Research Grants to Support Children with Autism

CCF faculty member Dr. Pamela Rollins recently received two grants to study supports for autistic children. The first grant, a $2.7 million award from the Department of Defense, is titled "Meeting the Need of Young Hispanic Autistic Children: Developing a Culturally and Linguistically Sensitive Intervention to Alleviate Core Social Challenges ." The aim is to create and evaluate a culturally and linguistically responsive adaptation of Pathways parent-mediated early autism intervention (CLR-Pathways) for young Hispanic autistic children experiencing low income. Dr. Rollins will work with an expert stakeholder group of Hispanic and bilingual (Spanish/English) community partners and parents of autistic children to create the adaptation. For the second grant, an internal award from UT Dallas, Rollins partnered with Dr. Yapeng Tian from the Computer Science Department. Their aim is to develop an innovative data-driven artificial intelligence (AI) solution to measure social attention behaviors in autistic children accurately. The project leverages AI and machine learning to build a gaze target detection model to provide a precise, objective, and scalable assessment of social attention behaviors. Congratulations Dr. Rollins!

Recent Faculty Research

Faculty affiliates of the Center are highly productive scholars whose research crosses the fields of human development ranging from parent-child relationships to social-emotional health. Recent publications include:

Benítez-Barrera, C. R., Behboudi, M. H., & Maguire, M. J. (2024). Neural oscillations during predictive sentence processing in young children. Brain and Language, 254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2024.105437.

Kosloski, E., Patel, S., Rollins, P.R., (2024) The role of Pathways Early Autism Intervention in improving social skills and respeto for young Hispanic autistic children. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-024-06419-x.

Monroe, A., Chandler-Campbell, I. Damico, K. Danovitch, J. & Mills, C. (2024). The role of truth and bias in parents' judgments of children's science interests. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105949.

Schneider, J., Behboudi, M. H. & Maguire, M. (2024). The necessity of taking culture and context into account when studying the relationship between socioeconomic status and brain development. Brain Sciences, 14(4), 392. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14040392.

Suma, K., Caughy, M. O., Bakeman, R., Washington, J., Murray, B. K., & Owen, M. T. (2024). Active direction: A new observational measure of African American parenting. Infant Behavior and Development, 76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2024.101955.

CCF Receives Salesforce CRM Implementation

CCF has a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, thanks to Thanawalla Digital (T Digital), a software engineering firm who donated a build. In March, T Digital held a 'Standup Weekend' for CCF, building a Salesforce organization with the support of over 300 UT Dallas students and professional volunteers. The Mayor of Richardson, who attended the event, made a proclamation for the weekend, noting that "Salesforce developers, administrators, and volunteers are to be commended for donating their time to implement Salesforce to ensure that the Center for Children and Families can continue in their efforts to research human development, educate future professionals, and use science driven direct service to children and families." CCF is excited about the transformational power this new CRM will have for CCF outreach program data.

From the Director

It was an incredibly busy spring and we're happy to have a bit of a slower pace this summer. Still, our Play With Me program continues at 3 sites and our developmental screenings work has sped up with the hiring of Andrea. I'm so excited to welcome Jingyi as well and work with her to support additional CCF research. This summer we are also revamping our social media presence and look forward to unveiling new content and channels this Fall. If you are in town, summer is a great time to come visit and see all of the fabulous work being done. Please reach out if you are interested in a visit!

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

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