MEGAN COURTNEY | Reporter
Research assistants are needed to volunteer for a study that involves research and working with families of young children that have a developmental disabilities.
Beginning in October, graduate- or senior-level students who volunteer will be assigned to assist a Missouri First Steps primary care provider on 15 home visits and three visits with five different families.
Teacher Education Professor Rebecca Panagos, coordinator of the program, said that volunteers are assigned to child development specialists and that they will be working with the providers and the families they are assigned to while the therapists are working with the children.
“I have two more openings for research assistants,” Panagos said. “There are things we can do for them to help them build their résumé to be more marketable in the field.”
Panagos also said she hopes research assistants see that different families have their own routines and that they expand their world and their horizons.
Panagos said that assistants will gain experience working with families of young children with developmental disabilities while also gaining research skills, assisting with data collection and reporting results. Along with these skills, assistants will have the opportunity to learn how to help families work with their children and to help improve their motor skills, language and emotional development.
Through the online modules that the assistants will need to complete, they will receive certificates from the National Institute for Health, as well as certifications in HIPPA and FERPA.
Panagos said credit is available for graduate students, and seniors may qualify for graduate credit or use the experience as an honors class assignment. The home visits will take place in October and November and occur every other week.
To participate in the program, assistants must undergo a background check, a drug screening and complete various online modules. Panagos said that Missouri First Steps is partnering with Lindenwood and that Lindenwood will pay for the drug screenings of the applicants.
For more information, contact Rebecca Panagos at [email protected].
