ELEVATE: Early Learning and Experience Variability in Assessment and Trajectories in Early Childhood

Brief Description
ELEVATE is a research study examining how children's early thinking, language, and social-emotional skills develop during the preschool years, using a pilot assessment tool.

Eligibility for Participation
●    Children ages 2–5 years old (any gender)
●    Live in a primarily English-speaking household

Participation Details
Participation involves four (4) visits to our lab in Brookline, Massachusetts, over about one year. Each visit takes approximately one hour.
●    Visits 1 & 2: scheduled within the first 2 months
●    Visits 3 & 4: scheduled about one year after Visits 1 & 2

At each visit, your child will complete age-appropriate, tablet-based activities, and you (the parent/caregiver) will be asked to fill out some questionnaires about yourself and your family

Research Contact
Call 617-312-6112 or email ELEVATE@childrens.harvard.edu. 

Full Description
ELEVATE is part of a larger, multi-site study investigating how children's early thinking, language, and social-emotional skills develop during the preschool years. We are recruiting children ages 2–5 in the Boston area with no known genetic, metabolic, syndromic, or progressive neurological disorders to help us pilot new assessment tools designed for young children.

Emotion Processing in Infancy and Early Childhood

Brief Description
The purpose of this study is to investigate the development of emotion processing. Specifically, we are interested in how emotion processing changes from infancy to childhood and how it may be related to other cognitive domains, temperament, physiology, and mental health in children.

Eligibility for Participation
We are no longer recruiting participants for this study. The study team has finished infant and three-year follow-up data collection. We are running five and seven-year follow-ups with families who enrolled at infancy. This study involves one visit to the lab at each time point (when children turn 3, 5, and 7 years). Sessions typically last anywhere from one-and-a-half to three hours. While we contact families at each time point, the follow up visits to the lab are completely optional. Additionally, if families have left the Boston area, there are options for remote participation.

Research Contact
Call 857-218-3660 or email emotion.project@childrens.harvard.edu.

Full Description
The ability to read emotions in facial expressions is a critical skill that helps us to navigate our social world. In the current study, we aim to understand how this ability emerges and evolves in infancy and throughout childhood. To do this, we measure the brain’s response to a range of emotional faces using electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). We utilize a variety of behavioral, cognitive, genetic, and clinical measures to help us create a comprehensive picture that charts the developmental course of emotion processing throughout infancy and childhood. We also administer a short temperament assessment, a battery of tests to measure ability in different cognitive domains, and an assessment of physiological responses.

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Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience