2023 Lectures
The Center for Children and Families welcomed parents and professionals for its 15th annual series of lectures.
April 7, 2023, 11am
| Andres Bustamante, Ph.D. “Playful STEM Learning in the School Yard and Community Spaces” |  |
Children learn best in active, engaged, meaningful, and socially interactive settings, making play an ideal context for learning. This presentation will share findings and future directions from a series of projects that use developmental science to infuse everyday spaces (e.g., bus-stops, grocery stores, school yards) with playful STEM learning opportunities. Findings will focus on caregiver-child conversation, interaction, and STEM learning. The presentation will also emphasize co-design strategies that invite local community members to become design partners, so installations reflect community values, strengths, and learning goals. The objective of these projects is to create scalable informal STEM learning installations in the places and spaces that children and families already spend time.
April 21, 2023, 9:30am
| Alva Tang, Ph.D. “Temperamental Differences in Social-Emotional Development and Mental Health Across the Life Course” | |
How may individual differences in social and emotional development shape mental health across the life course? Dr. Tang’s talk delves into one line of her interdisciplinary research investigating how a shy temperament in childhood shapes development, as well as anxiety and depression across the life course. The series of experimental and observational studies identify several neurocognitive and social processes that alter risk and resilient trajectories to enhance our understanding of developmental risk factors and our ability to implement prevention strategies.
| Diane Mitschke, Ph.D., MSW “Navigating a New Normal: How Newly Resettled Refugee Children and Adolescents Adjust to Life in the United States” | |
Navigating life in the United States as a new refugee can be a rollercoaster of exciting new adventures and frightening new challenges to overcome. For refugee children and adolescents who find themselves on this wild ride, the resettlement experience can vary dramatically depending on a number of factors that can help or hinder adjustment. This presentation will provide a snapshot of the refugee resettlement trajectory with an emphasis on the strengths and needs of refugee youth and their families based on research findings from a number of research studies conducted within the past decade. Practical strategies for positively influencing this trajectory to improve refugee mental health and wellness will be introduced.