Research at CPD reaches kids, parents in Michigan
Reprinted with permission of
The Herald Journal, Friday, March 7, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Herald Journal staff report
Research from Utah State University's Center for Persons with Disabilities will be used to help Michigan toddlers and their families.
The CPD's Parenting Interactions with Children: Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcomes (PICCOLO) tool will be part of a pilot program for Michigan's Mental Health Services for Children and Families.
An estimated 170 children and their families from 18 Michigan community mental health centers are involved in the study.
The checklist is one of three diagnostic tools that will be used in the pilot, which aims to help families in a variety of difficult situations. For example, a mother with depression may struggle with raising a child, parents may worry about their toddler's social development, or a doctor may be concerned that a young child is missing developmental milestones.
In all cases, a supportive parent is essential, which led to the selection of the CPD tool, according to Mary Ludtke, a consultant in Mental Health Services to Children and Families in Michigan.
PICCOLO was developed by USU researchers Lori Roggman and Mark Innocenti as an easy-to-use, easy-to-score aid to preofessionals who work with 1-to-3 year-old children. It determines which behaviors to encourage between parents and children and was created through observations of 4,500 parent-child interactions.
Specifically, the tool measures affection, responsiveness, encouragement and teaching behaviors that foster good relationsips between parents and children.
The PICCOLO's creators, Innocenti and Roggman, have collaborated on several projects that stress putting parents in charge of a child's development.
Both are affiliated with the Early Intervention Research Institute, a CPD program. Innocenti is associate director of the CPD's Research and Evaluation Division. Roggman is a professor in USU's Family, Consumer and Human Development Department.
