ECEI Researcher Receives COVID-19 Rapid Response Seed Grant

The current pandemic situation has put a lot of stress on families – especially families with young children. And OU-Tulsa’s Early Childhood Education Institute (ECEI) wants to know exactly what these families need as circumstances change.

The project, led by ECEI Assistant Director of Research Sherri Castle, PhD, is a partnership with Tulsa Educare. Working with OU Health Sciences Center, ECEI is creating an app that will provide quick daily assessments of families’ most immediate needs and stressors and allow researchers to study the impacts of the pandemic on families. The research is funded by a COVID-19 Rapid Response Seed Grant through the OU Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships.

Families will be asked a short series of questions about their top priority and greatest needs each day – food, behavior guidance, learning activities, stress management – and responses will be used to provide resources targeted to meet those needs such as how to get diapers, baby formula, or groceries as well as videos designed to help parents support their children’s emotional needs, demonstrate physical activities and sensory input, learning activities and calming exercises.

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