As you are aware, the ELC works with researchers in order to provide opportunities for data to be collected to further the field of early education. Recently, Assistant Professor Michelle Lobo, PT, PhD, shared what has transpired following data collection at the ELC by the Move 2 Learn Lab at UD. (see below)

Several ELC families recently volunteered to participate in a feeding study with researchers from our Move 2 Learn Lab at UD. I wanted to follow up to let you know how your involvement has helped us move forward. I work with a variety of children who have trouble moving their arms and who rely on others to provide them with each bite of food or sip of drink when they are hungry or thirsty. I, along with students in UD’s new Master of Arts in Interaction Design Program with Professor Ashley Pigford, want to figure out ways we can help those kids be more independent. We watched your kids eating to learn the typical steps young children use to eat and we watched kids who have trouble eating. This helped us brainstorm ideas for designing eating environments and tools to alter or bypass steps in the eating process to help kids be more independent. The design students have prototyped a variety of solutions, including differently shaped spoons and DIY friendly feeding animal robots (see figures). We will now see how well these solutions work. We are optimistic we can help kids better eat and your children’s involvement in our study has been a critical part of that process. Thank you!