May 9, 2012
Infant and Child Studies Consortium participated in Maryland Day
Faculty and students from the Psychology Department recently participated in the 14th annual Maryland Day on Saturday, April 28 . This is a family-friendly event with 400 interactive exhibits, workshops and live performances. This year, the campus saw 65,780 visitors. Psychology faculty and students were part of the Take a Break Tent for Families put on by the Infant and Child Studies Consortium (for further info about the Consortium see the link below). This consortium brings together researchers from 4 different departments on campus (Hearing and Speech Sciences, Linguistics, Human Development, and Psychology) who conduct research on infants and children of all ages. At the booth, faculty and students talked to hundreds of parents about their research activities. Parents of 178 children signed up to participate in future studies. This number will only increase as families mail in postcards they took home to fill out. At the booth children enjoyed playing at bubble and coloring stations around the tent and parents of infants took full advantage of the diaper changing station inside the tent. Researchers handed out water and juice to thirsty families and gave away prizes for visitors to take home (bubbles and balls for kids; magnet clips, water bottles, hand sanitizer, and pens for parents). This is one example of the community outreach activities related to research on childrens development in the Psychology Department. The next upcoming outreach activity by this group is Development Discovery night on May 18 at 6pm. At this event parents can discover more about the Infant and Child Studies labs and results from recent and ongoing studies! This event is for the whole family and will include light refreshments, a small play area, and changing station.
More Info: http://infantstudies.umd.edu


