University Daily Kansan, August 21. 1985
Page 5
Bureau of Child Research helps disadvantaged
By Carol Stephenson
Staff Reporter
Rud and Ann Turnbull work as a husband and wife team at the Bureau of Child Research, helping families cope with their mentally retarded children. For much of their research, they draw upon their own experience as parents of a mentally retarded child.
"Because we are parents, we know the kinds of questions that run through a parent's mind," Ann Turnbull said. "We can enhance communication between parents and researchers by being able to look at both sides of an issue."
"We're trying to help families plan for the future of their children." Turnbull said. "We talk to them about what resources the child has and what programs would be most beneficial for the child."
Rud Turbell is a lawyer who has devote his studies to legal issues of the law.
The research that the Turnbulls are involved in is only one aspect of the many facets of research at the Bureau of Child Research, which has offices in Haworth Hall.
Ann Turnbull has been working with 20 families in the Topeka area who have mentally retarded children in high school.
Richard Schiefelbusch, director of the bureau, said, "The goal for everyone associated with the bureau is to find ways to prevent developmental disabilities and, when they occur, to detect them early so that special training and treatment can intervene to stop progression of the disabilities".
The Bureau of Child Research was established by the Kansas Legislature in 1921. The purpose of the bureau was to cooperate on research projects with hospitals and with other agencies of the state and to study problems of children.
The Legislature chose the KU campus as the location of the administrative offices of the bureau.
"The Legislature designated that the bureau be located on the KU campus, but not be limited to the University," Schieffelbusch said. "We are in relationships with any institution that relates to the child life of the state."
In 1955, former Chancellor Franklin Murphy made the bureau an independent division of KU.
"One of the complexities of having the bureau at KU derives from the nature of a university," Schieflbuch said. "The university is primarily a setting where you have a responsibility for teaching graduates and undergraduates. This is a non-teaching division that must work with the teaching. We do work very closely with the special education and human development departments."
"The biggest risk is that grants won't be funded," he said.
From its beginning, the bureau has relied on support from federal research grants that amounted to $4.5 million last year.
The bureau receives $1,169,000 from the state, but that puts the bureau in competition for money with academic departments.
With support from research grants, the bureau employs over 300 people, 25 of whom are senior investigators in research projects and clinical training projects based in Lawrence, at the Parsons State University, and at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan.
titting in the black room on his mother's lap, the baby watch-
led as he was shown pictures of birds. As the baby became bored with the pictures, he looked away. A new picture would appear. Through a two-way mirror a research assistant took note of the infant's response.
"We believe that understanding the changes of a child's learning development when he is an infant is the key to understanding the whole learning process that an individual goes through," said Marian O'Brian, coordinator of research in the infant division of the bureau.
By taking an infant and noting his patterns of learning and following him through as he develops both physically and mentally, O'Brian said, may give some indication as to which children will be fast learners and which ones will be slow.
This is evidence, Columbo said, that the baby has stored information about what he has seen.
"When the baby begins looking away quicker after being shown the same picture," Columbo said, "it is an indication that the baby is making a decision. He's saying to himself, 'Hey, I've seen this before.'"
Columbo said that determining a baby's attention level may be related to learning later on in life. Some babies will look at the same picture for 15 minutes before losing atten-
"We're trying to help families plan for the future of their children. We talk to them about what resources the child has and what programs would be most beneficial for the child." Ann Turnbull
Bureau of Child Research
"We hope that our studies will teach us how babies learn so we can pass that knowledge on to parents and teachers of young children so they can make better assessment of the development of the child," she said.
John Columbo, a Lawrence graduate assistant who works with O'Brian, studies information processing in 8- and 9-month-old babies.
In Columbo's study, the babies were shown the same picture repeatedly. Columbo noted the duration that the child looked at the picture.
"I wanted to know how these babies, who aren't able to speak, who don't understand language, take in information and organize it," Columbo said.
"The idea of the study is to get at the baby's retention level. As the picture is repeated, the baby's level of attention decreases," he said.
"In the long run we may see these things affecting the child's learning as he gets older," he said.
n the basement of a liquor store in Kansas City, Kan., a KU team of researchers try to find answers to academic failures they see in inner-city schools.
The team is part of a program called the Juniper Gardens Children's Project, which began in 1965 in Kansas City, Kan.
"When we started we had some pre-school programs for increasing language acquisition of children to help better prepare them for entrance into public schools," said Vance Hall, director of the Juniper Gardens Children's Project. "There was evidence that children from a low socioeconomic background had delayed language and were at a disadvantage when they started
school. Our research indicated that children we worked with did increase their preacademic performance and fared better once in school."
Hall said that researchers worked not only with the children but with技师。
"We're convinced that a child's failure to learn is largely a result of a lack of practice." Hall said. "We're going into the schools. 'We've been working with teachers and principals developing procedures that allow children more opportunity to practice writing and a greater opportunity to read orally. We think that through these procedures we can enhance a child's academic performance."
Throughout the Kansas City, Kans,
and Shawnee Mission school
districts, researchers worked with
teachers and principals to help them
motivate children in the classroom
"We stressed the importance of teachers and principals giving attention and approval for appropriate behavior, rather than scolding a child for inappropriate behavior," Hall said.
A program also has been developed called Responsive Parenting in which more than 3,000 parents were taught better child management procedures. Hall said. The program emphasizes many of the same things that teachers and principals are told such as giving attention to a child when he behaves well and ignoring inappropriate behavior.
Hall said the research has not gone unnoticed — they have seen results.
"We have seen improvement on the academic performance of the children that we worked with, on their Friday spelling tests, and what read in their groups, there is a marked improvement."
In the last four years the researchers also have worked with autistic children, who have severe behavior
deficits in learning. Results have indicated that children have increased their academic performance, Hall said. Parents have kept records of their child, showing that behavior has improved as well as their performance in school.
There's always a perpetual feeling of excitement around here," Schiefebusch said. "Through our research we are constantly making strides toward helping people."
On Nov. 1, the bureau will resubmit a request for federal and state funds for another five years.
Plans are under way for a new center that will study human development from birth to death. The center will be a result of a merger of the Gerontology Center and the Bureau of Child Research approved by the Board of Regents in June. The new center will be called the Institute for Human Development and Aging.
"It's natural to create a program that studies all aspects of life." Shiefelbusch said. "Children get older and middle-aged people do too, so we'll be able to study the problems of all ages and better understand the development of humans."
Shiefelbusch said that the bureau had brought satisfaction to his life because the work had proven worthwhile.
"We have undertaken the job of applying behavioral analysis to children's problems in a useful way." Schieflebusch said. "We got scientists interested in practical application of their science. But our group has been a very special group of people who have felt that they could do something important and who worked together and stayed until they demonstrated that they have done something valuable for the future of the development of children."
Research
continued from p.1
and 17 percent came from industry and individuals.
Meyen said the share from public agencies was typically well over 90 percent, but there had been several grants from industry in fiscal 1984.
To keep the chemistry department at a competitive level, Harmony instituted its very intake of $550,000 in programs should be increased to $70,000.
Shunmugai said most of the money to support his telecommunications laboratory came from private industry. To keep up with changing technology, new equipment purchases should equal 20 percent of the total budget, he said.
"That leaves me scroungling around for $100,000 a year," he said. "It's up to the faculty to beg or borrow to get the equipment. It's almost hopeless. I feel like I'm begging most of the time."
Orley Taylor Jr., professor of systems and ecology, said it was difficult to get money for equipment in his work with honey bees.
"We've had to buy things like
refrigerators and treezers with our own money," he said. "I have $7,000 or $8,000 invested in research. I just put in $1,000 this week. Other people do the same thing."
The question of who should pay for university research has no easy way.
Last month Budig called upon federal research agencies to help the states and private industry support a multi-year program to modernize university laboratories.
But Meyen said the federal agencies were not financed as well as in
the past and that the possibility of more cuts in domestic spending by the federal government might lower research funding even more.
With less money available, the competition between universities has increased. He said that some universities such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University have an advantage because of their stronger research histories.
From private industry, contributions of equipment have been increasing for the past four or five years, Meyen said.
A campaign to raise $2 million in research funds from private sources, begun two years ago, has received about $1.5 million in gifts, pledges and equipment, said Steve Menaigh, director of public relations for the Kansas University Endowment Association.
Deanell Tacha, vice candleman for academic affairs, said gifts of instruments from industry were welcome but were not the answer.
"it's equipment they don't use anymore," she said.
For KU to be a leader in research and education, researchers and students should have the same equipment they would find in industry, Tacha said. She also said that the
state must invest more in research. She said it was in the state's economic interest to upgrade the
research at its universities to attract high-technology industries to Kansas.
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