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Child Development and Behavior Branch (CDBB)

Baby playing with toys

Overview/Mission

CDBB supports basic and translational research and training that addresses the typical neurocognitive, psychological, behavioral, physical, and social-emotional development and health of infants, children, and adolescents. The branch explores how individual differences in development, as well as family and other social relationships, are affected by genetic and environmental influences including emerging societal trends (e.g., increased reliance on technology and digital media), as well as public health emergencies. The branch also supports basic research to identify the mechanisms by which atypical development and related health outcomes in children and adolescents, including those with learning disabilities, arise from or are differentially affected by genetic and environmental risk/protective factors. The branch uses these findings to inform translational prevention, intervention, and health promotion studies designed to enhance their lives.

  • Pediatric Primary Care: Supports research on how primary care providers and primary care systems can promote children’s health, development, and well-being, with a focus on research to bolster the evidence base for pediatric clinical preventive services.
  • Neurodevelopment, Cognition, and Behavior: Supports basic research on the developmental pathways leading to typical and atypical cognitive and brain development and developmental mechanisms underlying cognition and behavior at the molecular, genetic, cellular, and brain structural and functional levels
  • Early Learning and School Readiness: Supports basic and translational developmental research to specify the experiences that prepare children for a successful transition to school entry and later achievement and long-term follow-up to quantify the long-term effect of early intervention programs
  • Language Development and Multilingualism: Includes research in language development and psycholinguistics throughout the lifespan, including bilingualism/multilingualism and/or second-language acquisition
    • Tackling Acquisition of Language in Kids (TALK) Initiative: An NIH-wide initiative that supports activities to better understand early language development and the learning trajectories and needs of late-talking children. TALK will expand the study of language development to a broader range of populations and identify potential risk factors for late talking.
  • Mathematics and Science Cognition, Reasoning, and Learning: Development and Disorders: Supports projects in basic and intervention research on mathematical thinking and problem solving, as well as on scientific reasoning, learning, and discovery, across all ages from infancy into early adulthood
  • Literacy and Related Learning Disabilities: Focuses on research and training initiatives to increase understanding of both normal and atypical development of reading and writing. This includes development of prevention, remediation, and instructional approaches to enhance these abilities
  • Social and Emotional Development/Child and Family Processes: Supports research and research training relevant to normative social, emotional, and personality development in children, from the newborn period through adolescence. This includes studies of family processes, child maltreatment, exposure to violence, and human-animal interaction
  • Technology and Digital Media: This program supports basic and translational research as well as training initiatives on exposure to and use of technology and digital media (TDM) across development, from infancy through adolescence

  • Brett Miller, Acting Branch Chief
    Main Research Areas: Learning Sciences: reading, writing, and related learning disabilities; dyslexia/reading disability; mathematics and science learning and related learning disabilities
  • Layla Esposito, Program Officer
    Main Research Areas: Social and emotional development and child and family processes, human-animal interaction
  • Julia Garside, Program Analyst
  • Lauren Jones, Extramural Staff Assistant
  • Tracy King, Medical Officer
    Main Research Areas: General pediatrics/pediatric primary care; pediatric clinical prevention services; developmental and behavioral pediatrics; transition from pediatric to adult health care
  • Laureen Lee, Staff Assistant
  • Parisa Parsafar, Ph.D., Program Officer
    Main Research Areas: Development of social and affective processes, risk and resilience, early learning and school readiness. small business programs
  • Virginia C. Salo, Program Officer
    Main Research Areas: Language development throughout the lifespan; preverbal communication; multilingualism and/or second-language acquisition; technology and digital media; neurodevelopment

Highlights

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