Child Development News

LAWRENCE - Using data to inform decisions or next steps isn’t just the bedrock of boardrooms and business. A team of University of Kansas researchers has shown that it’s also the foundation for improving the language development and communication skills of infants and toddlers.

LAWRENCE – Two previously independent early care and education training programs are collaborating to provide professional development opportunities and technical assistance to childcare providers across Kansas, with a total grant of $2.3 million awarded through the Kansas Department for Children and Families (KDCF).

Two-year-old Baylee Shriner plays with toys like other children her age now, but that wasn’t the case several months ago. Baylee, who has autism spectrum disorder, had trouble interacting with the world around her and could not communicate with her mother, Linzi Shriner, of Tonganoxie, Kan.

When Rosemarie Truglio was growing up in Hoboken, New Jersey, “Romper Room” was the closest thing to educational programming on television. Like other children across the country, she waited for the host of that "live kindergarten" program to hold up her magic mirror and call out the names of children who might be watching at home.

Native American parents of young children are invited to a workshop Tuesday, April 2, in Mayetta to help foster the health and development of Native American children from local tribal communities. The program is part of a partnership between University of Kansas researchers and area urban and rural Native American communities.

LAWRENCE — In an average kindergarten class of 30 students, about two are experiencing developmental language disorder, meaning they learn language more slow

LAWRENCE — University of Kansas researchers have reported that pregnant women who consumed a supplement of DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), a nutrient added to U.S. infant formulas since 2002, tend to have children with higher fat-free body mass at 5 years old.

A clinical trial of book reading to help kindergarten children with Specific Language Impairment learn words has determined the number of times a child with SLI needs to hear a word to learn it. That would be 36 times or “exposures” compared to 12 times for typically developing children.

The aptly named SWIFT Education Center (Schoolwide Integrated Framework for Transformation), funded by one of the largest grants in KU history of $24 million, has rapidly hit its goals since it was funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs in October 2012.