The Center for Evidence-Based Practice:
Young Children with Challenging Behavior
Dr. Matt Timm - Program Coordinator

The Center for Evidence-Based Practice: Young Children with Challenging Behavior is a national collaboration of researchers and organizations committed to the development, dissemination, and utilization of practical knowledge related to the effective intervention and prevention of the challenging behaviors of young children. The five year grant award (2002-2006) from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs is co-directed by the University of South Florida and the University of Colorado at Denver. Additional participating sites include the University of Kansas, the University of Illinois, the University of Florida, Tennessee Voices for Children, Lehigh University, and Pyramid Parent Training of New Orleans. Collaborating organizations include the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children (DEC), the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the National Head Start Association (NHSA), and the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA). Dr. Matt Timm, Tennessee Voices for Children, serves as a senior faculty member of the Center.    

The overall goals of the Center are to raise the level of awareness and implementation of positive, evidence-based practices, and to build an enhanced and more accessible data base supporting those practices. To accomplish these goals, the Center is: (1) engaging in a comprehensive, collaborative, and multi-disciplinary process for identifying evidence-based practices, (2) developing partnerships with national early childhood organizations and multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural dissemination networks to ensure a widespread campaign of awareness and systems enhancement, (3) developing materials and implementation strategies to impact personnel preparation at the pre-service and in-service level, (4) developing a collaborative research agenda with ongoing input from consumers and families, and (5) implementing a national program of research designed to address critical issues for young children and families affected by challenging behaviors.

Beginning January, 2004, the Center will engage in a three-year multi-site longitudinal research study on young children with challenging behavior. The purpose of Project K.I.D.S. (Kids in Development Study) is to provide descriptive information regarding the development of challenging behaviors in young children and the environmental factors that influence these behaviors. Participating sites are Lehigh University, Tennessee Voices for Children (in collaboration with the Regional Intervention Program-RIP), Pyramid Parent Training-New Orleans, University of Colorado-Denver, University of Florida-Gainesville, University of Kansas and University of South Florida. Primary participants will be families with young children who have already been identified as having challenging behavior or who are at substantial risk for having challenging behavior. A total of approximately 400 families will take part in the study. Secondary participants will be teachers and associated personnel providing childcare, early education, and kindergarten services to enrolled children.