Institute for Research in Child Development

Research Themes

We currently have three research themes and there are a number of projects that are associated with these themes:

Neuroscience and early development

“The development of emotional health starts before a child is born, and the first two years of life are a critical period for laying the foundations for emotional health throughout childhood and into adult life, in particular through the parent/child relationship.” We believe that research in the areas of early development and intervention is essential if we are to make an impact on the long term outcomes of children at risk. There is clear cross-party consensus on the need for early intervention and for methods that will make this more cost effective and targeted. In 2008 IRCD commissioned a brand new Babylab and are developing new methods (using eye-tracking, EEG , ERP) that can be employed in laboratory and real world settings and that are able to detect early language, attention and social difficulties in babies. We see the development of neuroscience methods to address issues of social deprivation as a core part of the work of IRCD (see the ELAS, TALBY and Daisy project pages).

Health, wellbeing and risk

The IRCD is committed to finding out how to maximise the potential wellbeing of children by understanding the range of environmental conditions under which development happens. Children do not develop in isolation. To understand development we need to understand and model many layers of the child's world: from the biological factors affecting brain development through the earliest baby-parent relationships, to the complex relationships in adolescence with families, peers and wider social networks. Projects in this area include studies that aim to understand: the impact of prenatal drug exposure and nutrition on babies' long term developmental outcomes; the impact of drinking water on children's cognitive abilities; the factors that influence the psychological well-being of adolescents (see the Well London study). Our projects also aim to explore the complexities of social interactions in parents and babies;as well as social factors involved in the moral development in young children.

Fundamentals of child development

The IRCD also undertakes important original 'blue skies' research that attempts to understand the fundamental processes that underpin the development of children, particularly the perceptual, social and cognitive capacities that form the cornerstone for the development of human thought and communication. Without this core research agenda we would not be in a position to fully understand how, where and when development goes awry. Projects range from those studying the perceptual processes that underpin the understanding of human bodily communication and emotions to studies of children's understanding of ethnic identity and britishness. We have also developed a new way of visualising development called ACORNS

 

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© 2008