The primary goal of the Center's core faculty is to conduct research and advance knowledge about early childhood development. The core faculty and the projects they will conduct include: Academic Achievement Brain Development Cognition Language Maternal Factors in Development Neurological Disorders Social Programs

Dolores Norton conducts longitudinal studies to assess the impact of various environmental factors on Academic Achievement.
Larry Hedges assesses the impact of stable (gender, race, social class) and alterable (class size) factors on Academic Achievement.

Brain Development
Our CECR faculty members use different approaches to study brain development.

David Levin focuses on developing new MRI and fMRI methods to study the brain.
Steven Small investigates brain structure and function in stroke patients.
Peter Huttenlocher focuses on the role of synaptic development in early brain development.

Cognition
Faculty at CECR study various aspects of cognition.

Amanda Woodward studies the development of infant reasoning and their understanding of others' actions.
Susan Levine and Janellen Huttenlocher study early quantitative and mathematical development.
Susan Levine and Janellen Huttenlocher also study early spatial development.
Janellen Huttenlocher studies adult representational memory.
Bennet Bertenthal studies how an infants' perceptual, motor and cognitive skills develop and allow them to understand concepts such as object motion.

Language
The study of language development is one of the main focuses at CECR.

Susan Goldin-Meadow investigates non-verbal language development in both hearing and deaf children as well as the wider use of gesture to communicate.
Janellen Huttenlocher and Susan Levine study the impact of early environment on both vocabulary and syntactic skill development.
Dolores Norton, as part of her longitudinal study with low income African Americans, has examined the links between early linguistic interactions and later literacy and social interactions.
Amanda Woodward explores how early social knowledge may contribute to early word learning in infants.
Howard Nusbaum investigates the perceptual, cognitive, and psycholinguistic factors that influence our recognition and understanding of spoken language.
Terry Regier studies semantic systems and the forces that constrain them.

Maternal Factors in Development
Researchers at the CECR use diverse theoretical and empirical approaches to study maternal impact on development.

Bob Michael uses a Rational Choice theoretical approach in his economic analyses of women's changing role in the family.

Three researchers look at broad environmental factors:
Sydney Hans studies how substance abuse, mental disorders and poverty impact cognitive and emotional development.
Ariel Kalil studies how teen and single motherhood and poverty impact family well- being.
Dolores Norton studies how poverty and minority status impact long term developmental outcomes.

Dario Maestripieri uses a biopsychological theoretical approach to investigate the impact of parenting style on mother-infant interactions and a primate model to investigate the causes of infant abuse and neglect.
Starkey Duncan takes a very different approach and focuses on parent-child interactions, especially conflict negotiation.

Neurological Disorders
Brain injury is the focus of 4 of our CECR researchers.

Peter Huttenlocher has a special interest in early unilateral (one sided) brain injuries and what they can tell us about brain development.
Susan Levine studies the plasticity of cognitive skills after focal brain lesions.
Steven Small studies cortical damage in stroke victims and factors to recovery.

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Social Programs
The impact of social programs on child development is studied by CECR faculty from various disciplines.

James Heckman takes an economics approach to evaluate GED and job training programs.
Julia Henly uses a psychological approach to investigate the impact of welfare sanctions on child and family well being.
Ariel Kalil takes a public policy approach to study how impoverished envioronment and welfare reform affect child development.