For centuries, families have served up good conversation around the dinner table.
Sharing advice, planning events and recounting the day’s highs and lows are key mealtime ingredients to connecting families and building support systems — all while cooking up valuable learning opportunities for the youngest family members.
Interpersonal violence affects an untold number of Nebraskans. Too often, victims of physical, sexual and psychological violence, especially among youth and minority populations, do not have adequate support. And communities may lack appropriate training to safely intervene when those they care about are at risk for intimate partner abuse.
Many children growing up in disadvantage enter school without the requisite social, emotional and behavioral skills to be successful. When those children start off behind, they have a difficult time catching up to more successful students.
Because a child’s early school experiences are predictive of their long-term educational trajectory, starting school socially and behaviorally ready is crucial. Otherwise, long-term detrimental outcomes and widening gaps in academic and social success may follow.
As 12-year-old Joe rides a horse named Indy, his mother watches from the far end of the arena. She smiles as her son interacts with the gentle, giant animal.
Michelle Howell Smith, CYFS research assistant professor, can relate. She has seen the positive effects of equine-assisted therapy with her own daughter, MaKenna, who has autism.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is not limited to certain hours of the day. For diagnosed children, the condition is with them every hour of every day, year-round.
And their needs will evolve as they grow older.
Given the chronic and changing nature of ADHD — a neurodevelopmental disorder that makes it difficult to focus and control impulsive behavior — effective treatment must be flexible and consistent throughout the child’s life span, both at home and school.
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.
A peer-reviewed research paper highlighting the success of a research-based program designed by CYFS has been named the 2017 Article of the Year by the Journal of School Psychology.
The article, “A randomized trial examining the effects of Conjoint Behavioral Consultation in rural schools: Student outcomes and the mediating role of the teacher-parent relationship,” appeared in the April 2017 issue of the Journal of School Psychology. It was one of two separate articles published about the outcomes of research using Conjoint Behavioral Consultation (CBC), a program now known as Teachers and Parents as Partners (TAPP).
A family partnership program developed by University of Nebraska researchers shows promise for addressing challenges related to early childhood obesity.
With an interdisciplinary team representing three Nebraska campuses, Brandy Clarke, assistant professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, led a pilot study for the program: Partners in Health: In it Together (PHIT).
