Current Research

Power PATH Head Start Intervention

This project is funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration of Children and Families (2013-2019). Grant #90YR0075.
The Power PATH intervention program tests the short and long-term effects of an integrated dual-generation program in collaboration with PATHS curriculum, Coping Power parent intervention and Head Start programs in Alabama. This program will provide intervention services for both parents and children in Head Start preschools, in order to improve parents’ ability to provide safe and supportive home environments and to prepare children for the transition to elementary school academically and behaviorally. Social, cognitive, and physiological measures will assess its success, with opportunities to apply this intervention program nationally.

Imagination, Fantasy and Cognition 

This project is funded by the Imagination Institute via The John Templeton Foundation (2015-2017). Grant RFP 15-08.
Previous research indicates that children who engage in high levels of pretend-play display enhanced cognitive function. However, these studies do not tell us if pretend-play, specifically fantastical, imaginative pretend-play, causes improvements in cognitive abilities. In this study, children between the ages of 3 and 5 have the opportunity to participate in 5-week randomized controlled pretend-play intervention. Some children play highly imaginative games (e.g., pretending to fly to the moon) while other children play non-imaginative games (e.g., follow the leader). Results revealed that children who participated in pretend-play showed improvements in cognitive functioning (i.e., working memory, attention shift) whereas children who engaged in non-imaginative play did not. In addition, children who were highly fantastical demonstrated the greatest gains in cognitive abilities. In other words, certain types of imaginative behaviors such as those that are highly fantastical may be even more beneficial than others. These data were the first to provide evidence for the direct, causal relationship between fantastical pretend-play and cognitive development, such that engaging in fantastical pretend-play may be one of many ways to directly enhance cognitive development (i.e., equifinal development).