A Laboratory for Faculty and Student Researchers

The Early Learning Center is a focal point for interdisciplinary research on early learning and development, prevention, intervention and education. Many research activities take place at the Early Learning Center that increase our understanding of how children grow, learn, and interact and how children and their families are best supported. If you are interested in doing research at the ELC, please click here.

Researchers at the ELC have measured children’s development over time, observed children’s interactions with toys, activities, and other children, and audio- and video-taped children’s activities. Other researchers have asked families to complete questionnaires about their backgrounds and their views of children and child-rearing. Teachers and other staff are also asked about their views of children, the activities that take place at the ELC, and how effective they think services are for children and their families.

All research activities are the ELC are reviewed and approved by both the ELC’s Committee on Research and the University of Delaware’s research review board.

These topics have recently been explored in research programs undertaken at the ELC:

Supporting emerging literacy
Children’s emotional responses to music
Teachers as curriculum-makers
How children learn to speak and understand what others say
Kindergarten technology integration, developmental changes in emotional knowledge
Teaching and learning emotional competence
Children’s stress response to new situations and challenging tasks
Infant’s understanding of space and movement
Children’s social-emotional behaviors