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Category: Early Education & Development

Adding up factors of how children learn mathematics

Carrie Clark, assistant professor of educational psychology, is using functional MRI technology to capture brain activity while children learn mathematics.
Carrie Clark, assistant professor of educational psychology, is using functional MRI technology to capture brain activity while children learn mathematics.

What is 72 multiplied by 12? While fourth-graders will focus on arriving at the correct answer, Nebraska researcher Carrie Clark wants to know what happens in the brain as they learn to solve the problem.

Clark, assistant professor of educational psychology, is using functional MRI technology to capture brain activity while children learn mathematics. Funded by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Office of Research and Economic Development and housed at CYFS, she is exploring the relationship between children’s mathematics learning and executive function — the ability to maintain focus and behave in a goal-oriented way. Full Article

Bass receives funding for study focused on improving outcomes for rural adolescents

Henry Bass, fourth-year doctoral student in school psychology
Henry Bass, fourth-year doctoral student in school psychology

Henry Bass, a fourth-year doctoral student in school psychology, has a passion for helping youth navigate one of life’s most challenging periods: adolescence.

Bass recently received news that the Society for the Study of School Psychology will award funding for his dissertation project, which focuses on identifying the extent to which family-school partnerships improve long-term outcomes for children as they become adolescents. Full Article

Research examines outdoor effects on children with autism

A participant takes an outdoor walk.
A participant takes an outdoor walk with researchers.

Birds sing and a cool breeze rustles through the leaves as a pair of squirrels scurry through the tall, green grass and up a tree — all under blue skies and sunshine.

Such scenes are typical during a leisurely, summer walk through a park — relaxing and uplifting for most people. For a team of University of Nebraska researchers, however, those elements may prove to be even more significant. Full Article

Research aims to battle adolescent bullying, peer threat

Meredith Martin, assistant professor of educational psychology, is conducting research on factors contributing to peer threat to understand how children cope in different ways.
Meredith Martin, assistant professor of educational psychology, is researching children’s individual responses to bullying and peer threat to help tailor effective solutions.

Take a moment to recall a particularly overwhelming day.

Morning comes way too early after a restless, worry-fueled night of tossing and turning. A knotted, roiling stomach makes eating breakfast difficult. Deadlines loom, with too much to do in too little time. Full Article

Early childhood professionals ‘Getting Ready’ to make positive impacts

Early childhood special education providers, service coordinators and supervisors from across the state gathered at Nebraska Innovation Campus June 5-8 for Getting Ready training sessions.
Early childhood professionals gather at Nebraska Innovation Campus June 5-8 for Getting Ready training.

Early childhood special education providers, services coordinators and supervisors from across the state gathered at Nebraska Innovation Campus June 5-8 for Getting Ready training sessions.

Hosted by CYFS faculty and staff, a pair of two-day training sessions focused on translating evidence-based research practices into real-world settings to positively impact children and their families. Part C state trainers delivered the training material after having received one year of training and support in Getting Ready from CYFS faculty and staff. Full Article

Nebraska-Brazil early childhood research partnership continues progress

Marjorie Kostelnik, senior associate to University of Nebraska President Hank Bounds, speaks to researchers from Nebraska and Brazil May 8.
Marjorie Kostelnik, senior associate to University of Nebraska President Hank Bounds, speaks to researchers working on joint projects through the University of Nebraska-Lincoln/Brazil Early Childhood Partnership.

Faculty and students from two continents came together recently in Lincoln for a pair of research luncheons to update one another on various joint projects.

Researchers from the University Federal Rural of Pernambuco in Brazil visited Lincoln April 24 to meet with their CYFS faculty and student counterparts in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln/Brazil Early Childhood Partnership. A second group of Brazilian researchers, from University Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, were on campus May 8 to discuss their projects with their Nebraska partners. Full Article

Summit on Research in Early Childhood helps connect research, practice, policy

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, the Stanley and Debra Lefkowitz Faculty Fellow in the Department of Psychology at Temple University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, delivers the summit’s keynote address
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, the Stanley and Debra Lefkowitz Faculty Fellow in the Department of Psychology at Temple University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, delivers the summit’s keynote address. View Photo Gallery

Creating connections among early childhood research, practice and policy — and how each element can enhance the lives of young children and their families — provided the central theme of the 2018 CYFS Summit on Research in Early Childhood.

More than 200 attendees, including researchers from across the University of Nebraska system, practitioners, administrators, community partners and policymakers, gathered April 25 at Nebraska Innovation Campus for the daylong, fifth biennial summit, which highlighted the latest findings in early childhood research from NU-affiliated faculty, and those findings’ implications for practice and policy. Full Article