Welcome to the Applied Developmental Psychology Website!
GMU offers M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Applied Developmental Psychology. The program focuses on development during childhood and provides basic knowledge about typical and atypical development, skills for assessing developmental level and conducting research, and techniques for planning and evaluating programs that foster optimal development. Opportunities exist for mentored research, comprehensive training in advanced statistical analysis, practica at local sites, training and experience in teaching, and applied work under faculty supervision at community sites.
Recent News - New Faculty Member!
The ADP program is pleased to welcome Dr. Rachel Cohen as our newest faculty member! Dr. Cohen is particularly interested in the biological, relational and environmental factors influencing the development of at-risk children, and most especially on the creation, evaluation, and refinement of intervention programs for families with infants and toddlers. Her current work focuses on national evaluations of the federally funded Early Head Start program, a two-generation program for low-income families with pregnant women, infants, or toddlers designed to enhance child development and health, and strengthen family and community partnerships. She used to be the Coordinator of Infant and Toddler Research in the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, DHHS.
Recent News - New Research Grant!
The ADP program is pleased to announce that Dr. Susanne Denham received new funding from IES for a project entitled 'Early Childhood Teachers as Socializers of Young Children's Emotional Competence' ($1.6M over 4 years). The project will assess teachers’ means of modeling emotional expressiveness, reacting to children’s emotions, and teaching about emotions, via both teacher self‐report and observations. The classroom setting differs from the family context, so other issues could impact a teachers’ socializing of emotion, easing or hampering the ability to be a positive force in this area. These factors (e.g., job stress, education, staff/child ratio) are also studied. Approximately 400‐800 children in 80 classrooms will be involved.
Recent News - Congratulations Editors!
GMU's ADP program is proud to be the home of three major scholarly journals. Dr. Winsler is the editor of Early Childhood Research Quarterly. Dr. Denham is the editor of Early Education and Development. Dr Rojahn is the editor of the Journal of Mental Health Research in Intellectual Disabilities. These and other ADP faculty are also well represented on the editorial boards of other journals as well. Students in the ADP program, thus, in addition to submitting their own work to journals for publication consideration, can also get first-hand experience with the scientific peer-review publication process from the other/editorial side of things.
ADP Program Newsletter
Click here to download (PDF) the latest ADP Program newsletter.
Spring 2012 ADP Colloquia Series
All colloquia are located in Engineering 1110 @ 12:00pm unless otherwise noted.
All members of the GMU community are welcome to attend.
Wed Feb 1 Dr. Patrick McKnight, GMU
Latent Class Analysis (LCA)
DIFFERENT LOCATION - Mason Hall, Edwin Meese Room
Wed Feb 8 Brooke Herndon & Scott Zeiter, Grafton Integrated Health Network
Grafton's Psychiatric Residential Treatment Centers for Adolescents: Overview and Opportunities
Wed Feb 15 Dr. Rena Subotnik, Director, Center for Psychology in Schools and Education, American Psychological Association
Association Work for Psychologists: APA’s Center for Psychology in Schools and Education
Wed Feb 22 Dr. Johannes Rojahn, GMU
Behavior Problems and Precursors of Psychiatric Disorders in Infant and Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Wed Feb 29 Dr. Martha Ann Bell, Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech
Cognitive Control of Negative Affect during Infancy
Wed March 7 Amy Shillady, National Association for the Education of Young Children
GMU alum turned NAEYC editor: Making the successful transition from practica to employment
Wed March 21 Dr. Mittie Quinn, Counseling and School Psychology, GMU
Applying Developmental Psychology to Private Practice
Wed March 28 Dr. Nikki Forry, Child Trends
Subsidized Care Arrangements and Pre-Kindergarten: An Examination of Combined Arrangements and Children’s Readiness for School upon Kindergarten Entry
Wed April 4 Dr. Carole Brown, Department of Education, Catholic University of America
The development of a new early intervention screening assessment, Baby Rubrics TM
Wed April 11 Dr. Adam Winsler, GMU
Early school transitions and trajectories for low-income Dual Language Learners (DLLs) in Miami: Immigration, retention, childcare, social skills, and English proficiency
Wed Aptil 18 Dr. James Howard, Department of Psychology Catholic University of America
Aging Brain, Aging Mind: Implications for Learning
Wed April 25 Dr. Mary Ann McCabe, Department of Psychology, GMU
Children's Mental Health: Bridging the Gap Between Research, Practice and Policy
Wed May 2 Dr. Colleen Vesely, College of Education and Human Development, GMU
Immigrant Families' Experiences with Early Childhood Care and Education