2008 Woodie Awards
U.S. children's study finds a home at university
by Brian Anderson
Issue date: 10/23/07 Section: News
The National Children's Study, which will be conducted over the next 21 years in areas across the country, has come to the University of Delaware. The university has been named regional participant and will be involved with the project for the next two decades.
The university joins other learning and medical institutions in this nationwide study. The study, created by the National Institutes of Health, will analyze hundreds of thousands of children as they grow and develop.
The goal of the study is to collect data on conditions such as autism and on the impact of the environment on the development of children.
Deborah Amsden, a researcher at the university's Center for Disabilities Studies, was named project director for the university's part in the study. Amsden said she will oversee the day-to-day operation of the study and is anxious to be part of the project.
"Could you imagine being in the National Children's Study?" she said. "I was very excited about it."
Amsden said over each of the next five years, approximately 250 children from New Castle County will be volunteered by their parents to participate in this study. The children, who will be monitored from more than 100 counties nationwide, will be tracked from birth until they turn 21.
Michael Gamel-McCormick, director of the Center for Disabilities Studies, said the study will allow researchers of all kinds, such as psychologists, medical workers and social workers, to observe how children grow and develop in different parts of the country. Additionally, environmentalists and energy-related researchers will be able to participate to study how soil and air affect a child's development.
Though researchers at other sites will begin collecting data as early as January 2008, university participants will begin its efforts in 2009, McCormick said. The process will begin even before a child is born.
"It's pretty complicated," he said. "You literally go in and identify people who are pregnant."
The university joins other learning and medical institutions in this nationwide study. The study, created by the National Institutes of Health, will analyze hundreds of thousands of children as they grow and develop.
The goal of the study is to collect data on conditions such as autism and on the impact of the environment on the development of children.
Deborah Amsden, a researcher at the university's Center for Disabilities Studies, was named project director for the university's part in the study. Amsden said she will oversee the day-to-day operation of the study and is anxious to be part of the project.
"Could you imagine being in the National Children's Study?" she said. "I was very excited about it."
Amsden said over each of the next five years, approximately 250 children from New Castle County will be volunteered by their parents to participate in this study. The children, who will be monitored from more than 100 counties nationwide, will be tracked from birth until they turn 21.
Michael Gamel-McCormick, director of the Center for Disabilities Studies, said the study will allow researchers of all kinds, such as psychologists, medical workers and social workers, to observe how children grow and develop in different parts of the country. Additionally, environmentalists and energy-related researchers will be able to participate to study how soil and air affect a child's development.
Though researchers at other sites will begin collecting data as early as January 2008, university participants will begin its efforts in 2009, McCormick said. The process will begin even before a child is born.
"It's pretty complicated," he said. "You literally go in and identify people who are pregnant."
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