Post 1
So far I have worked with Judy Wolf and Ave Bauder, who work at the CCE centers in Tioga and Seneca Counties, respectively, to discuss our project and recruit participants who use their resources. We have been recruiting low-income parents or guardians and their children ages 4-6 years old. I have created and put out a brochure in order to entice families to participate and have made many calls to families to invite them to participate. It is very rewarding to receive interest from families and to have families call me back to set up a time to work with us.
In addition, we have been working to solidify our protocol for the experiment and to pilot the tasks on children in the Ithaca community. The tasks have been going well, but we are constantly modifying them, so they will be successful when we go to Seneca and Tioga Counties and work with the families there. I have also been gathering the materials we need and working to schedule our time efficiently.
I have learned that beginning a research project takes a lot of time and planning and can sometimes go very slowly in the beginning while things are getting set up. It is necessary to be patient and collaborate with others to get things going, so they can end up as great as possible in the end.
We have yet to meet with participants in person, but many members of the communities that we will be going to seem interested to begin working with us. It is going to be very exciting to see what kind of data we can collect and to see how various communities differ from each other in the way they speak to their children and raise their children.