Funding Agency: NIDA 

Principal Investigators: Herb Severson, Ph.D.; Dana K. Smith, Ph.D.; Sonya Yokum, Ph.D.

Cognitive dissonance interventions help smokers quit

Despite overall declines in the rate of tobacco use in the United States over the past 30 years, nearly 38 million Americans still smoke and are at high risk for long-term health problems and death.

Over the last 40 years, researchers have extensively evaluated a wide range of smoking cessation approaches, including cognitive-behavioral interventions, and have made meaningful progress in the application of both clinical and public health interventions to help smokers quit. However, the overall success rate of smokers quitting has not significantly improved.

Cognitive dissonance interventions (CDIs) are shown to be effective in treating health-related problems, as well as substance use, and preliminary findings support their use in smoking cessation. Because of this success, researchers will develop this CDI mobile app, test it, and develop additional features. Markers of success include participants’ smoke-free days, as well as changes in smoking attitudes and behavior.

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NIMHD 

Principal Investigators: David R. Smith, Ph.D.; Edward G. Feil, Ph.D.; and Jacqueline Huscroft-D’Angelo, Ph.D. (Oregon Research Institute)

Dual-language (Spanish/English) program to support Latinx students and their families with key health literacy knowledge for a successful transition into adulthood. 

Low health literacy has widespread negative effects, prompting national organizations like the CDC, AAP, WHO, and others to call for improvements for the entire U.S. population. Studies show that Hispanic/Latinx populations in the United States are at the highest risk for limited health literacy when compared to other minority populations. English Language Learners (ELs) face added barriers due to limited English proficiency, making them particularly vulnerable to health disparities. These factors contribute to reduced use of preventive services, fewer healthcare visits, less adherence to medical prescriptions, and higher rates of preventable hospitalizations and emergency care. 

HealthyU-Latinx is an innovative project aimed at enhancing health literacy among Latinx high school students and their families. Our technology-based solution will offer a web and mobile platform featuring a self-paced, culturally relevant, dual-language (Spanish/English) curriculum with educational videos and learning games designed to support students with information that they need to manage their health needs and navigate healthcare institutions as they transition into adulthood.  

This solution will be developed in collaboration with Latinx students and families. By creating a resonant and accessible resource, HealthyU-Latinx aims to bridge health literacy gaps, improve health practices, and reduce health disparities for Latinx students and their families.

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NIMH 

Principal Investigators: Ed Feil, PH.D; David Smith, Ph.D.

Mom-Net helps moms with depression

Low-income mothers of young children represent a disadvantaged group who are at exceptional risk for depressive syndromes and who have increasingly limited access to mental health services. Despite the availability of treatments, most do not receive treatment due to a lack of mental health coverage or available providers, or because of childcare or transportation issues. For rural women, these difficulties may be compounded by the scarcity of providers within reasonable proximity.

This project, will develop and evaluate a prototype coach training tool for Mom-Net, a clinically effective online intervention tailored to mothers of young children. The training program will improve dissemination of Mom-Net by being cost-effective, scalable and by leveraging technology to provide a consistent training experience.

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NCBDDD 

Principal Investigators: Ed Feil, PH.D; Kathleen Baggett, M.D. (Georgia State University) 

Virtual advocacy tool seeks to empower diverse mothers with intellectual and developmental disabilities  

Mothers with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) face significant challenges during the perinatal period, affecting their health, emotional well-being, and parenting capacity. Mothers with IDD often encounter systemic biases and stigmatization, which can jeopardize both their own and their infants’ well-being. Additionally, mothers of color with IDD experience compounded discrimination, making their voices less heard in advocacy and support efforts. 

To address these issues, this project is developing and piloting a virtual advocacy tool designed to support diverse mothers with IDD throughout the perinatal period. The tool will empower both professional and paraprofessional advocates by providing resources that focus on positive parenting and maternal health, rather than perpetuating negative stereotypes. 

This project will provide supports for mothers with IDD to enhance health outcomes for mother and child.  

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NIMHD 

Principal Investigators: Jessie Marquez; Patricia Vadasy, Ph.D.

App supports sibling well-being in families experiencing disability

Most individuals with disabilities have typically developing brothers and sisters.  Siblings usually share high levels of involvement in each other’s lives, particularly in childhood and in older age. Yet, despite the important and lifelong roles siblings play in the lives of their brothers and sisters who have special needs, even the most family-friendly agencies often overlook sibling health and well-being. Research documents health risks to family caretakers of people with special needs, and minority family caretakers are disproportionately likely to suffer these risks.

For the past 30 years, the Sibling Support Project (SSP) has developed a national and international network that provides innovative workshops for siblings and parents to share their challenges and concerns, and to learn effective social-emotional and behavioral health strategies. Access to these in-person workshops is limited by geographic, socio-economic, cultural and other factors.

Bridging this gap is an assistive mobile app for developing knowledge, skills and routines for attending to siblings’ (ages 3-5) social-emotional health and well-being. Age and culturally appropriate multimedia content and interactive behavioral skill-building features allow families to easily access and engage in the intervention at the time and place that best meets their needs.

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NIDA 

Principal Investigators: Camille Cioffi, Ph.D.; David R. Smith, Ph.D.

App seeks to reduce stigma in home visiting programs for parents with substance use disorders and improve outcomes for parent and child.  

Stigmatization of people with substance use disorders (SUD) during the perinatal period often stems from harmful stereotypes that they are incapable of being good parents or caring for their children. This stigma leads to systemic harm and undermines the parent-child relationship. Home visiting programs to support families often struggle to engage parents with SUD because of both real and perceived stigmatization. Many home visitors express a desire to improve their ability to support families experiencing SUDs but lack adequate training in harm reduction practices and de-stigmatization strategies. 

Our proposed solution, VisitBoost, aims to transform home visiting services by addressing stigma at multiple levels and by offering comprehensive interventions that shape organizational policies and the types of services offered to families experiencing SUD.  

This holistic approach will provide home visiting programs and staff with the tools they need to reduce harm and improve outcomes for families affected by SUD.

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NIMHD 

Principal Investigators: David Smith, Ph.D.; Edward G. Feil, Ph.D.; Jason Small, MPP 

Technology-based training system for the First Step Next program seeks to enhance mental health support in school settings. 

Children from diverse backgrounds, particularly Black and Latino students, often have limited access to mental health services, impacting their development and academic success. Schools play a crucial role in bridging this gap by integrating evidence-based interventions into daily routines. One such intervention, First Step Next (FSN), supports young, high-need students in developing essential social-emotional and behavioral skills. FSN has successfully assisted over 2,000 students in the past 15 years. 

This mobile and web-based training system expands the reach and sustainability of FSN by creating an interactive multimedia training tool for paraprofessionals, such as classroom aides and assistant teachers, to effectively implement FSN. We will test the platform’s feasibility and usability in real educational settings to ensure its effectiveness in enhancing mental health support for young students. 

This technology-based tool aims to improve children’s access to mental health services in a sustainable and cost-effective way by delivering scalable training to school staff. 

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NIMH 

Principal Investigators: David R. Smith, Ph.D.; Edward G. Feil, Ph.D.; Carol Metzler, Ph.D. (Oregon Research Institute) 

Integrated app and smart-speaker tool to support adolescents’ positive behaviors and positive family functioning  

Despite strong evidence supporting behavioral parenting strategies to reduce child disruptive behavior, many parents face significant obstacles in accessing the education and tools they need. While effective behavioral parent training protocols exist, barriers such as the high cost of professional services and the demands of daily life often prevent parents from learning about and utilizing these strategies consistently. 

FamilyNet is an innovative solution that leverages smart speaker and mobile technologies to deliver easy-to-implement evidence-based tools for positive behavior change for families in their homes. The FamilyNet system will feature an integrated smart speaker and mobile/web application that helps parents develop and implement behavior plans for their children.  

FamilyNet aims to empower parents with accessible, science-based tools to improve behavior management and family dynamics.

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NIMHD 

Principal Investigators: David R. Smith, Ph.D.; Edward G. Feil, Ph.D.; Jason Small, MPP 

Training tool enhances mental and physical health in juvenile justice through technology. 

Youth under 18 in the criminal justice system, particularly those from minority backgrounds, face significant health challenges including substance use disorders, mental health challenges, and HIV/STIs. Youth who have experienced involvement with the juvenile justice system are often released into community supervision without adequate health screening and treatment. This lack of support leads to poor long-term outcomes, high societal costs, and adverse effects on community well-being and individuals’ futures. 

To address these issues, we will leverage technology and a proven program designed to tackle co-occurring health problems among juvenile justice-involved youth, Preventing HIV Among Teens Life, to develop a sustainable, cost-effective training tool for juvenile justice settings. 

This project aims to improve outcomes for at-risk youth and advance public health by providing a scalable, technology-driven solution to ameliorate juvenile justice practices. 

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NIMH 

Principal Investigators: Camille Cioffi, Ph.D.; David Smith, Ph.D.; Maria Schweer-Collins, Ph.D.

App seeks to support the health and wellbeing of bereaved parents after perinatal loss. 

The loss of a child during pregnancy or shortly after birth causes profound emotional distress for many parents, potentially leading to long-lasting psychological effects such as post-traumatic stress, prolonged grief, and even suicidal thoughts. In the U.S., approximately 24,000 babies are stillborn each year, and over 14,000 infants die within their first month. Miscarriage affects about 15% of parents, with more than 30% of women experiencing a miscarriage meeting the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Current treatment options are limited, with few accessible programs effectively addressing the intense grief and trauma associated with perinatal loss. Additionally, health care professionals who provide care to bereaved parents have little to no training on how to effectively reduce the impact of perinatal loss.  

This project aims to develop a mobile application, “Along with Me,” designed to reduce distress (traumatic stress and intensity of grief) in bereaved parents, and to train health care professionals on offering direct support to parents. This feasibility study will focus on creating a prototype with key features, evaluating its acceptability, usability, and promise of effectiveness through feedback from both bereaved parents and health care professionals.  

This project will provide a valuable tool for managing grief and trauma, ultimately improving support for parents navigating perinatal loss.

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NIAAA 

Principal Investigators: Mark Van Ryzin Ph.D.; David Smith, Ph.D.

PeerLearning is a cost-effective, web-based tool that helps teachers deliver academic instruction that promotes active learning and prevents alcohol and drug use.

Positive social engagement can drastically alter the trajectory of adolescents’ lives. Students who experience social marginalization often form groups that reinforce their experience. In these marginalized spaces, alcohol use and other “deviant” activities are often reinforced. This loop can be interrupted by bringing youth from across a school’s social network together through collaborative learning activities.

PeerLearning provides teachers with lesson templates that utilize the following five evidence-based components to make collaborative learning activities effective alcohol and drug prevention programs:

• positive interdependence
• individual accountability
• collaborative social skills
• face-to-face interaction
• guided processing.

Each web-based template allows teachers of any subject to deliver academic instruction that could prevent student alcohol and drug use. The technology also automates lesson logistics, giving teachers more time to engage with their students and bring a broad and varied cross-section of peers together.

The positive social interactions that students experience during PeerLearning lessons lead to greater social acceptance and improved student relationships. This, in turn, improves behavior, social-emotional skills, mental health and academic achievement.

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NIDA 

Principal Investigators: Dana Smith, Ph.D.

Qlarity – Unique mindfulness app reduces adolescent substance use
Adolescents in the juvenile justice system demonstrate high rates of tobacco, alcohol and other drug use at rates up to three times higher than other youth. Substance abusing youth are also at higher risk than nonusers for mental health problems, including depression, conduct problems, personality disorders, suicidal thoughts, attempted suicide and completed suicide.

Interventions based on mindfulness are an effective intervention for a variety of problems, including substance use among adolescents. Qlarity, a 12-module program, is the only mindfulness-based mobile app specifically targeting the reduction or cessation of adolescent substance use

Qlarity can be used both as a complement to existing treatments and for use in the juvenile justice system. The research and development team has extensive experience in working with adolescents who engage in substance abuse.

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NIMHD

Principal Investigators: David R. Smith, Ph.D.; Ed Feil, Ph.D.

Digital training tool offers HIV/STI intervention for juvenile offenders

Youth under 18 involved in the criminal justice system are disproportionately minorities and are affected by substance abuse, mental illness and HIV/STI. Most are released on community supervision without the screening, diagnosis and treatment they need, and lasting effects on community well-being and individual employment prospects are profound.

Preventing HIV Among Teens (PHAT) Life aims to alter this trajectory. The evidence-based program is a private/public collaboration between Influents Innovations and the University of Illinois at Chicago. It strives to provide sustainable, real-world change that cost-effectively meets youth’s health problems within juvenile justice settings.

PHAT Life training includes a web browser and mobile app training tool to enable para-professionals such as health educators, probation staff and youth care staff to deliver the program to youth on probation, identify additional training materials, and provide consistent training experiences to para-professionals.

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NIAAA 

Principal Investigators: Mark Van Ryzin Ph.D.; David Smith, Ph.D.

PeerLearning is a cost-effective, web-based tool that helps teachers deliver academic instruction that promotes active learning and prevents alcohol and drug use.

Positive social engagement can drastically alter the trajectory of adolescents’ lives. Students who experience social marginalization often form groups that reinforce their experience. In these marginalized spaces, alcohol use and other “deviant” activities are often reinforced. This loop can be interrupted by bringing youth from across a school’s social network together through collaborative learning activities.

PeerLearning provides teachers with lesson templates that utilize the following five evidence-based components to make collaborative learning activities effective alcohol and drug prevention programs:

• positive interdependence
• individual accountability
• collaborative social skills
• face-to-face interaction
• guided processing.

Each web-based template allows teachers of any subject to deliver academic instruction that could prevent student alcohol and drug use. The technology also automates lesson logistics, giving teachers more time to engage with their students and bring a broad and varied cross-section of peers together.

The positive social interactions that students experience during PeerLearning lessons lead to greater social acceptance and improved student relationships. This, in turn, improves behavior, social-emotional skills, mental health and academic achievement.

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NIMH 

Principal Investigators: Brian Danaher, Ph.D.; David R. Smith, Ph.D.

eHealth program helps new mothers battle depression
Women who experience depression immediately before and after birth, about 14 percent to 20 percent, face serious health consequences and suffering. Their families and their infants’ development are also negatively affected.

Unfortunately, barriers such as stigma and a lack of care providers and treatment options make it difficult for women with prenatal or postpartum depression (PPD) to access clinic-based mental health treatments. As a result, participation is low.

MomMoodBooster (MMB) addresses this challenge. Based on cognitive behavioral therapy and incorporating multimedia modeling and engaging activities, MMB is designed to help women identify patterns in their thoughts and behaviors and to develop a personal action plan to make helpful changes. A website is used by both project managers and supportive phone coaches to monitor participants’ overall progress. MMB serves as a commercial-ready product that fits the workflow and staffing of healthcare organizations.

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NIDA

Principal Investigators: Judy Andrews, Ph.D.; David R. Smith, Ph.D.; Judith Gordon, Ph.D., University of Arizona

Tobacco prevention program includes e-cigarettes
Unlike smoking, e-cigarette use is rising, even exceeding that of cigarette use, and youth are most at risk, experiencing a range of negative health effects and a risk of addiction. Because of these dangers, it’s crucial to incorporate e-cig use into tobacco prevention programs targeting youth. Click City®: Tobacco does just that.

Designed for students in the 5th grade, with a booster program for 6th graders, Click City®: Tobacco intervenes at a critical time before most youth experiment with using tobacco. Because the program is computer-based, it requires little teacher training time, allows students to work independently, provides teachers with time to work individually with other students, and encourages student engagement through interactive activities and games.

The updated program is available on a variety of devices, making it flexible for teachers and administrators, and most activities include e-cig use. Widespread implementation could have a significant impact on the public’s health, decreasing the use of nicotine products and related disease.

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NIMHD

Principal Investigators: Jessie Marquez; Patricia Vadasy, Ph.D.

Bilingual voice app improves education and health of Latino students and their families

The STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – proficiency of Latino elementary students prepares them for success in secondary- and college-level STEM content courses and in STEM fields after graduation. But although STEM fields account for most U.S. economic growth, Latino students are less likely to enroll or complete degrees in undergraduate and graduate STEM programs.

Talk STEM Familia promotes Latino students’ proficiency of the STEM vocabulary by using a smart-speaker-based approach to acquiring and practicing these words by upper elementary students and their families.

This Spanish-English app for more widely used smart-speakers provides a school-to-home bridge that enables families’ engagement in their child’s academic language acquisition. Smart-speaker technology can be used to deploy rich audio learning strategies, including bilingual instruction in definitions of target words and their pronunciations, on-demand audio games that stimulate vocabulary recognition, pronunciation, usage practice and recall, and brief audio dialogues that model the use and prompt practice of target words in culturally appropriate family and STEM contexts. Talk STEM Familia leverages limited classroom instructional time by enabling content-area and ELD teachers to provide synchronous practice opportunities and feedback on learning.

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NIMH 

Principal Investigators: Brian Danaher, Ph.D.; David R. Smith, Ph.D.

eHealth program helps new mothers battle depression
Women who experience depression immediately before and after birth, about 14 percent to 20 percent, face serious health consequences and suffering. Their families and their infants’ development are also negatively affected.

Unfortunately, barriers such as stigma and a lack of care providers and treatment options make it difficult for women with prenatal or postpartum depression (PPD) to access clinic-based mental health treatments. As a result, participation is low.

MomMoodBooster (MMB) addresses this challenge. Based on cognitive behavioral therapy and incorporating multimedia modeling and engaging activities, MMB is designed to help women identify patterns in their thoughts and behaviors and to develop a personal action plan to make helpful changes. A website is used by both project managers and supportive phone coaches to monitor participants’ overall progress. MMB serves as a commercial-ready product that fits the workflow and staffing of healthcare organizations.

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NIDA

Principal Investigators: Judy Andrews, Ph.D.; David R. Smith, Ph.D.; Judith Gordon, Ph.D., University of Arizona

Tobacco prevention program includes e-cigarettes
Unlike smoking, e-cigarette use is rising, even exceeding that of cigarette use, and youth are most at risk, experiencing a range of negative health effects and a risk of addiction. Because of these dangers, it’s crucial to incorporate e-cig use into tobacco prevention programs targeting youth. Click City®: Tobacco does just that.

Designed for students in the 5th grade, with a booster program for 6th graders, Click City®: Tobacco intervenes at a critical time before most youth experiment with using tobacco. Because the program is computer-based, it requires little teacher training time, allows students to work independently, provides teachers with time to work individually with other students, and encourages student engagement through interactive activities and games.

The updated program is available on a variety of devices, making it flexible for teachers and administrators, and most activities include e-cig use. Widespread implementation could have a significant impact on the public’s health, decreasing the use of nicotine products and related disease.

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NIDA 

Principal Investigators: Dana Smith, Ph.D.

Qlarity – Unique mindfulness app reduces adolescent substance use
Adolescents in the juvenile justice system demonstrate high rates of tobacco, alcohol and other drug use at rates up to three times higher than other youth. Substance abusing youth are also at higher risk than nonusers for mental health problems, including depression, conduct problems, personality disorders, suicidal thoughts, attempted suicide and completed suicide.

Interventions based on mindfulness are an effective intervention for a variety of problems, including substance use among adolescents. Qlarity, a 12-module program, is the only mindfulness-based mobile app specifically targeting the reduction or cessation of adolescent substance use

Qlarity can be used both as a complement to existing treatments and for use in the juvenile justice system. The research and development team has extensive experience in working with adolescents who engage in substance abuse.

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NIDCR

Principal Investigators: David R. Smith, Ph.D.; Ed Feil, Ph.D.

App helps parents provide the foundation for a lifetime of good dental hygiene

Despite early childhood oral health, preventive education and dental care, which enhance the opportunity for a lifetime free from preventable oral disease, approximately one in three 2- to 5-year-old children in the United States experiences tooth decay.

Parents struggle to adopt preventive strategies at the same time that challenging behaviors emerge in children’s psychological development. This combination can make it difficult to build the foundation of oral health practices, including behavioral parenting strategies, that experts recommend.

BeReady2Smile is a private/public collaboration between Influents Innovations, Oregon Research Institute and The Oregon Community Foundation that leverages resources to create a coordinated oral health prevention program to promote dental health targeted to parents of young children attending parenting education classes and families receiving home visiting services through Head Start.

The program includes a video that can be shown in parenting education classes to educate parents on oral health and a mobile/web application to drive behavioral change. It also features demonstrations and content on encouraging brushing, proper brushing techniques, fluoride myths and limiting sugar sweetened beverages and milk in baby bottles while in bed. Parents can participate in multimedia educational activities, develop dental health behavior plans, tailor features and receive feedback from the system on a secure website.

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NIMHD

Principal Investigators: Jessie Marquez; Patricia Vadasy, Ph.D.

Language app improves long-term educational and health outcomes among Latino families
Although STEM fields account for most U.S. economic growth, Latino students are not likely to enroll or complete degrees in undergraduate and graduate STEM programs. Given well-established research linking grade completion, economic success and overall health and well-being, this trend could result in serious, negative, long-term physical and mental health outcomes for Latinos.

Access to higher education generally, and STEM programs in particular, is hindered by lagging academic literacy and especially by unfamiliarity with abstract words that make up the scientific academic vocabulary. Words such as conclusion, evidence, method, integrate, relevant, distinct and component are fundamental to STEM content-area learning, but are uncommon in everyday conversation, particularly in homes where English is not the first language.

To promote Latino students’ scientific vocabulary, STEM Familia, a Spanish-English app, enables schools to overcome language and access barriers that impede families’ engagement in academic support. This technology can be used to deploy rich media strategies, including motion-graphic illustration and definition of target words, touch-screen games that stimulate vocabulary recognition and recall, and brief video vignettes that model the use of target words in culturally appropriate family contexts.

STEM Familia helps schools to leverage classroom instructional time by enabling teachers to provide synchronous practice opportunities and feedback on vocabulary.

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NICHD

Principal Investigators:  Patricia Vadasy, Ph.D.

Principal Investigators: Barbara Gunn, Ph.D.; Jessie Marquez

TEPRR App helps preschool teachers support critical language and literacy development

From birth to about age five, children experience an incredible window of opportunity for language development and early literacy skills. Through interactions with other human beings, children pick up spoken language and begin to learn how print language works. They can start to recognize that letters have names and sounds, words are made up of letters, and sentences are made up of words.

Building vocabulary, print awareness and other emergent language and literacy skills is foundational to later reading success. In fact, children who do not learn emergent language and literacy skills in preschool can face barriers to essential reading skills later in elementary school. Targeted literacy training for preschool teachers can help children enter elementary school with essential early literacy skills in place.

TEPRR is a cost-effective, evidence-based professional development program that facilitates teachers’ mastery of language and literacy instruction. The accessible online education and classroom tools make implementation easy for teachers and simple for classroom aids and volunteers to support.

The TEPRR tool also enables coaching via teleconference, so teachers can receive individualized feedback on video work samples. Through the TEPRR training teachers will learn:

• How to teach behavioral skills necessary for learning language and literacy.
• How to introduce and demonstrate a new language and literacy skill.
• How to provide adequate and appropriate practice.
• How to monitor children’s understanding and provide corrective feedback.
• How to work with aides and volunteers on providing additional instructional support.

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)

Funding Agency: NIMH 

Principal Investigators: Brian Danaher, Ph.D.; David Smith, Ph.D.

eHealth program helps new mothers battle depression
Women who experience depression immediately before and after birth, about 14 percent to 20 percent, face serious health consequences and suffering. Their families and their infants’ development are also negatively affected.

Unfortunately, barriers such as stigma and a lack of care providers and treatment options make it difficult for women with prenatal or postpartum depression (PPD) to access clinic-based mental health treatments. As a result, participation is low.

MomMoodBooster (MMB) addresses this challenge. Based on cognitive behavioral therapy and incorporating multimedia modeling and engaging activities, MMB is designed to help women identify patterns in their thoughts and behaviors and to develop a personal action plan to make helpful changes. A website is used by both project managers and supportive phone coaches to monitor participants’ overall progress. MMB serves as a commercial-ready product that fits the workflow and staffing of healthcare organizations.

Please contact us if you would like more information (I suggest a contact link for each grant that would direct to the contact us page, or have a direct email address conencted with each grant)