For many Nebraska families, finding affordable child care can seem like piecing together an impossible puzzle.
Parents juggle waitlists, long commutes and tough choices between work and staying home — all while early childhood teachers themselves face low pay, long hours and stress.
Autism is the fastest-growing disability category in Nebraska. About 30% of autistic children do not develop vocal speech by age 4 and require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) — non-verbal methods such as gestures, facial expressions, picture cards and tablets to communicate.
Children who are breastfed as infants are less likely to develop obesity. However, despite recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 25% of infants in the U.S. are exclusively breastfed for the first six months.
As many as 70% of mothers experience problems with breastfeeding, contributing to lower rates — particularly among Black Americans (17.2%) and rural residents (18%). Research suggests these low breastfeeding rates may compound potential nutrition-related health disparities from the start of life.
Because university researchers often use different methods and measures, it can be difficult to compare results across studies.
Amanda Prokasky, MAP Academy senior research specialist, and Lorey Wheeler, MAP Academy director, are collaborating with five other universities to develop a data coordination center to support cross-site analyses and help share findings more effectively.
Because bullying often begins and ends at school, teachers are the front line of defense against such behavior.
However, teachers in one country may respond differently than their international counterparts.
Jared Noetzel, doctoral candidate in the school psychology program, is leading a dissertation study on culturally responsive teacher training to prevent bullying in schools.
For families raising a child with autism spectrum disorder, everyday moments of connection can be difficult. The disorder affects about 1 in 36 children in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and often hinders social communication skills essential for personal, professional and academic growth.
A transformative program designed to help educators use mindfulness and reflection in their daily work is expanding its global reach.
Holly Hatton, associate professor of child, youth and family studies, is collaborating with researchers in Ghana to adapt CHIME — Cultivating Healthy Intentional Mindful Educators — an interactive compassion- and mindfulness-based program developed at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The program will support caregivers, young children and college students in the small west African country.
For new mothers, returning to work often means deciding whether to continue breastfeeding. But systemic barriers often make it difficult to do so.
To explore the relationship between breastfeeding and returning to work, Kailey Snyder, assistant professor in the School of Health & Kinesiology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, partnered with the Nebraska Academy for Methodology, Analytics and Psychometrics (MAP Academy) to examine a decade’s worth of national lactation data.
