5 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
The purpose of this study is to learn more about the most cost-effective way to improve the long-term life outcomes of disadvantaged youth, by comparing best practice academic supports to best-practice non-academic supports, and learning more about whether investing in both simultaneously has synergistic (more than additive) effects.
A child's early language environment is pivotal for language development. Disparities in early language environments contribute to the gap in school readiness between poor and more advantaged children. Ultimately this leads to disparities in students' school achievement and economic outcomes. While recent research has highlighted the value of early intervention for children in disadvantaged families, most existing interventions begin too late, reach only a small proportion of children at risk, and do not capitalize on the critical role that parent language plays in a child's educational trajectory. To address this challenge, the investigators propose to develop and evaluate a novel language-based, perinatal public health intervention, Thirty Million Words Newborn Initiative (TMW-NI). It is proposed that new mothers will receive this educational intervention while their babies are undergoing the universal newborn hearing screen. The intervention will use video, animation, and interactive questions to convey the importance of the early language environment and to illustrate strategies parents can use to promote language learning. The investigators will conduct formative research with mothers of low socioeconomic status (low-SES) and with healthcare providers to inform the content and format of the intervention prototype. Also critical for acceptability, the investigators will use an iterative approach to develop the intervention, with review of the work-in-progress by the intended audience. To assess feasibility and initial efficacy, the investigators will conduct a randomized-controlled trial with low-SES mothers during the newborn period. The investigators hypothesize that TMW-NI will positively impact parents' knowledge and beliefs about the role of language input for a child's language development.
This project is a hybrid efficacy/effectiveness trial of a streamlined version of the Bridges program, an evidence-based intervention (EBI) to prevent substance abuse and mental health disorders. Bridges is an integrated parent-youth intervention evaluated in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with Mexican Americans (immigrant and U.S. born) that showed long-term effects on multiple outcomes: substance use initiation and escalation, externalizing and internalizing symptoms, deviant peer association, and grade point average (GPA) in early adolescence; alcohol abuse disorder, binge drinking, marijuana use, risky sexual behavior, diagnosed mental disorder, and school dropout in late adolescence. Building on evidence of core intervention components and strategies for redesigning EBIs for the real-world, investigators will partner with low-income, multiethnic schools to adapt the program to a brief, 4-session format (Bridges short program, BSP), and optimize engagement, delivery, training, and implementation monitoring systems to facilitate dissemination and sustainability. The proposed RCT will also examine whether a parent-youth EBI can impact multiple channels of youth self-regulation (e.g., biological, behavioral, emotional) during adolescence when neurobiological systems are changing rapidly, and whether preexisting individual differences in self-regulation moderate program effects.
The purpose of the proposed study is to determine the efficacy of a multi-media educational curriculum in strengthening the early learning environments of vulnerable children, and positively impacting their language and cognitive development. Through evidence-based strategies, the TMW-WB curriculum teaches parents how to harness the power of their words to build their child's brain and impact their child's learning trajectory.
Middle-ear disease (infection and fluid) is the most common illness in young children after the common cold. Because hearing loss accompanies middle-ear disease, and because early life is a period of rapid development, concern has existed that sustained periods of middle-ear disease might cause lasting impairments of learning, speech development, language development, or behavior and social adjustment. Earlier phases of this research found that the insertion of ear tubes in children younger than 3 years of age with persistent middle-ear disease did not affect their development at 3, 4, or 6 years of age. This study examines the children's literacy, attention, and related abilities at 9 to 11 years of age.