Early Pathways to Competence
Faculty Affiliate Research Projects

The Early Pathways to Competence (EPC) initiative has the goal of advancing knowledge of typical and atypical developmental processes related to competence and mental health in the first five years of life. Its feature research activities emphasize the importance of studying developmental processes across domains of functioning and within specific family, cultural, and societal contexts. As part of this initiative, a major NIMH-funded pre- and post-doctoral training program, Integrative Research Training in Early Childhood Mental Health, was launched in July 2004. This program is a joint effort of the CSC and the Prevention Research Center of the College of Health and Human Development. Several research projects are currently underway, and a number of other major research efforts addressing development across domains of functioning and relations between culture, society, and competence are planned. In addition, the initiative engages in community activities that translate developmental science to practice and uses practice to enrich science. Each of the aims of the EPC initiative is reflected in our Project List.

Early Pathways to Competence Faculty:

Lead Faculty:
Pamela Cole, Professor, Psychology

Alysia Blandon, Assistant Professor, Psychology
Kristin Buss, Associate Professor, Psychology
Rick Gilmore, Associate Professor, Psychology
Mark Greenberg, Professor, Human Development and Family Studies
Cynthia Huang-Pollock, Assistant Professor, Psychology
Lisa Gatze-Kopp, Assistant Professor, Human Development and Family Studies
Lynn Liben, Distinguished Professor, Psychology
Carol Miller, Associate Professor, Communication Sciences and Disorders
Ginger Moore, Assistant Professor, Psychology
Jenae Neiderhiser, Professor of Psychology and Human Development and Family Studies
Rob Nix, Research Associate, Prevention Research Center
Lara Robinson, Instructor, Psychology
Cindy Stifter, Professor, Human Development and Family Studies
Doug Teti, Professor, Human Development and Family Studies
Laureen Teti, Acting Director, Child Study Center

 

Here is a sampling of some of the research that Child Study Center faculty who are affiliated with the Early Pathways to Competence Research Initiative are currently conducting:

Movin' On: Development across Domains in Infancy
Rick O. Gilmore, Laura Murray-Kolb, Pamela M. Cole, Laureen O. Teti, and Lynn S. Liben

Infant self-locomotion is a major event in the first year of life, both for infants and for caregivers. As Campos (2000) stated, crawling broadens the mind. This project examines the ways in which self-locomotion contributes to developmental changes in a variety of functional domains. Which changes are specific to the onset or mastery of crawling and which are not is unknown. This study follows infants from before they crawl through six weeks post-crawling, assessing their physical and motor development, as well as their abilities in language, emotion, attention, spatial cognition, and social interaction. In addition, this project is conducting preliminary studies aimed at understanding whether the onset and mastery of walking may also be a crucial setting event for different domains of development. The Infant Brain Development Lab also studies the early development of visual perception, spatial cognition, and memory, and the changes in brain activity associated with them.

The Role of Parenting in Infant Sleep Regulation and Sleep Problem Risk
Douglas E. Teti, Pamela M. Cole, Rick O. Gilmore, Cynthia Stifter, Edward Bixler, Michael Rovine, and Laureen O. Teti

A child's inability to get a good night's sleep has become a major public health concern. Among preschool and school-aged children, sleep disturbances are linked to daytime behavior problems, sleepiness and poor attention, and compromised performance in academic settings. Despite the fact that infant sleep patterns develop rapidly during the first year of life little is known about the ongoing, transactional process that transpires between infant and caregiver in the establishment of sleep patterns during the first two years of life. How do parents' efforts at infant bedtimes and night wakings influence infant sleep regulation? Are there aspects of these transactions that are crucial to understanding the emergence of sleep problems? The goal of this collaborative project is to understand how parental efforts at bedtime and when a child wakes in the middle of sleep contribute to the development of well-regulated sleep or sleep problems.

The Intersection of Language, Cognition, and Understanding Others
Carol A. Miller and colleagues

How do children come to be competent speakers of their native language?  How does language development influence social and cognitive development? The study of atypical language development contributes to our understanding of typically developing processes in addition to aiding efforts to prevent and treat language disorders. Our projects focus on children with specific language impairment (SLI), which involves delays in language development without other apparent developmental problems. Many of these children have subtle deficits in areas of cognition other than language. Our collaborations attempt to characterize the nature of these language problems as well as understand how other aspects of cognitive development relate to them. For example, a current project in development examines how children's  "theory of mind" (i.e., their understanding of others' thoughts, feelings, and motivations) is related to language and language delay. Little research has examined the complex interaction of language and cognition over time. Our project will investigate the changes in language development occurring before, during, and after a key transition in theory of mind in preschoolers with a wide range of language abilities. Our goal is to understand the conditions that optimize a child's learning and socialization as they prepare to enter school.

The Development of Toddlers Study
Pamela M. Cole, Keith A. Crnic, Keith E. Nelson, and Clancy B. Blair

How does a toddler become a preschooler who can regulate emotions effectively and flexibly? Our NIMH-funded longitudinal study (which is housed in the Child Study Center) focuses on the development of emotional self-regulation between 18 months and 5 years of age. In particular, we examine contributions of the child and of the family in a transactional approach. We focus on the role of developing language skills and executive functioning skills in the development of the ability to manage one's emotions flexibly and effectively. We examine aspects of family process that are likely to influence parents' ability to facilitate their children's development of emotional self-regulation including a variety of stress factors, both economic and psychological. In December 2006, 95% of our families were returning for a follow-up visit. The toddlers are now reaching 5 years of age. Stay posted for links to manuscripts that will be available in 2007. The Emotional Development Lab also studies the emergence of children's awareness of strategies for regulating emotions and cross-cultural differences in the socialization of emotion regulation.

Development of Child Attention and Learning Problems
Cynthia Huang-Pollock, Douglas Granger, and colleagues

Childhood Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is among the most common reasons that children are referred to pediatricians, school-based services, and mental health practices. Even when these children do not have a learning disability, they are still at high risk for school problems, such as underachievement. They are more likely to access special education services and tutoring but nonetheless research shows that they have a higher high school drop out rate and lower occupational status than other children. It is clear that there is a critical need to understand the early development of this problem. We focus on trying to determine how learning is compromised in children with ADHD. One possibility is that they have difficulty holding information in mind as they are trying to solve problems, something that psychologists call "working memory." In our work, we compare the working memory skills of children with and without ADHD as well as the speed with which they process information, the degree to which they react to the stress of testing, and their motivation to perform. Each and all of these may be important in the child's ability to develop the complex coordination of skills that learning requires. This collaborative project also considers different types of ADHD, specifically combined (ADHD-C) and primarily inattentive (ADHD-I) subtypes.

Predicting School Readiness and Adjustments among Children at 'Double Jeopardy'
Douglas M. Teti, Robert Nix, Linda Baker, and Michael Rovine

Mechanisms linking premature birth and later school outcomes are poorly understood. The present study seeks to identify such mechanisms in an African American, urban-dwelling sample at "double jeopardy", in terms of being at risk both medically and socioeconomically - almost all of these children have lived in poverty. The study sample of children, and their parents (including fathers, when they were available), were studied extensively during the children's first two years of life (R01 HD38982), with information about child health, socioeconomic risk, maternal adaptation to parenthood, maternal sensitivity, and children's physical, intellectual, and socioemotional development obtained on multiple occasions. With our current sample, we are uniquely positioned to address mechanisms underlying individual differences in school readiness and adjustment among low-income children born preterm. A very wide and representative gradient of medical risk characterizes this sample, enhancing our ability to address questions about mediators and moderators of medical risk. This study would be one of the few investigations of the quality of school transition that integrates extensive information from the first two years of life with information obtained during the early school years in predicting school adjustment from K through 2nd grade; and the only such study with a sample of environmentally high-risk African American children born preterm.