The Baker Research Center for the Advancement of Toddlers and Children with Developmental Delays
Enhancement, Research, and Inclusion of Children with Intellectual Disability in the Society
Head: Prof. Hefziba Lifshitz
Director: Dr. Varda Rozental-Sobelman
Founder: Prof. Pnina Klein
The goals of the center:
- Promoting CAB cognition, affect, and behavior of infants and children with ID with the goal of including them in society short-term and, ultimately, long-term.
- Promoting affect, behavior, and cognition through interactions between mothers and infants with ID
- Promoting affect, behavior, and cognition through interactions between pre-primary teachers and staff with children with ID
- Promoting reading and math skills in children with Down's Syndrome
- Peer mediation: Children with typical development read stories through an electronic book to children with Down’s Syndrome.
Dr. Shoshana Nissim
Dr. Varda Rozental-Sobelman
Cognition:
•Focusing - the adult's attempt to grab the child's attention by organizing the environment, emphasizing relevant stimulus, focusing on objects, activities, instructions, time, spacial orientation, etc.
•Expansion - expanding the immediate experiences beyond the here and now, by providing concepts, developing literacy, connecting phenomena, understanding cause, and effect, etc. This expansion is done in daily situations, like eating, dressing, bathing and in gaming, crafts, and interpersonal communication.
Affect:
•Behaviors expressing verbal or nonverbal excitement, appreciation, in relation to the child, people, objects or processes. The amygdala conveys emotional information to the frontal cortex and to the hippocampus and they increase learning and memory.
•Enhancing the quality of life by providing opportunities for decision making, self- determination, and autonomy through daily life activities.
Behavior:
•Includes all stages of task analysis (Gold, 1978; Luftig, 1987; 1995) when performing each task when teaching ADL.
Publication on the Baker Research Center (page 14) (Hebrew)
The Baker Award 2017
Dr. Rozental - Director of the Baker Research Center for the Advancement of Toddlers and Children with Developmental Delays - is the recipient of the 2017 Baker Award. Dr. Rozental worked at the Baker Center starting in the 1980s with dedication and modesty alongside the late Professor Pnina Klein to promote the cognitive and literacy of children with developmental delays with and without intellectual disabilities. Together with Professor Klein, she developed scientific methods for the advancement of children with early childhood education and even edited several Baker Research Center books and publications.
Academic Staff
Last Updated Date : 18/01/2023
