Grant Awards

Laura Justice, Professor; Executive Director of the Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy (CCEC)

The proposed 5-year study uses a causally interpretable research design to examine the effects of the Sit Together and Read (STAR) early-literacy intervention on the short- and long-term literacy skills of young children with developmental language disorder. It also examines the use of caregiver-directed behavior- change strategies as a means to support caregivers’ implementation of the intended treatment strength. STAR is a fully manualized intervention that significantly improves the early-literacy skills and longer-term reading outcomes of children at-risk for future reading difficulty. The proposed study is instrumental in assessing longitudinal impacts for children with developmental language disorder and identifying ways to enhance caregiver implementation of the key intervention ingredients.

More information may be found here.

Ji-Young Choi, Associate Professor, Department of Human Sciences

With recent funding from ACF’s Secondary Analyses of Data on Early Care and Education Grants program, Choi and her team will investigate patterns and outcomes of Head Start children’s additional public early care and education (ECE) use. Her team will utilize and expand Iowa’s integrated data system that includes state administrative records from education, public health, and human services. The project will highlight patterns of public ECE use that best relate to positive school readiness and identify groups of families who have limited access to public ECE services. Researchers, integrated data system (IDS) experts, and community partners will work together for this project.

Natasha Slesnick, Professor, Department of Human Sciences, HDFS; EHE Associate Dean for Research

The literature is characterized by a dearth of information on how to reduce risk for suicide among marginalized substance using youth experiencing homelessness (YEH). Suicide is the leading cause of death among YEH and most youth do not access services that may be available to them. Therefore, this study seeks to address this gap in the research literature with the goal to identify an effective intervention that can be readily adopted by communities that serve these youth.