Christopher M. Conway, PhD
Department of Psychology
Georgia State University
Dear Parent,
We invite your child to participate in a scientific study. We are conducting research supported by the National Institutes of Health. The purpose of the study is to help understand brain development of learning and language in children who are deaf and children who hear typically.
We are studying the brains of both typically hearing children and deaf children while they perform learning and language tasks. This will help us learn how children can become better communicators. We expect that this study will one day lead to better treatment for deaf or hard-of-hearing children who are struggling with language.
We will be testing children who are deaf and children who hear typically, aged 7-12 years.
With this letter, we are calling for children who have typical hearing and are not deaf.
Children must not have any motor, cognitive, or sensory impairment.
Children will visit the NeuroLearn Lab at Georgia State University two times, the first one about 2 to 3 hours and the second about 1 ¼ to 1 ¾ hour.
During the first visit, each child will wear a sensor net on his or her scalp while completing computer learning and memory tasks. The sensor net will measure the child’s brain responses to the tasks.
During the second visit, each child will play a computer game, listen to audio-recorded words and repeat them.
During both visits, a researcher will perform various activities from standardized cognitive and language development assessments with each child.
These activities include tasks such as copying block patterns, repeating number sequences said by the researcher, saying the meaning of words, pointing to pictures described by the researcher, etc.
For your time, you will receive $50 per visit. Your child will receive a toy, book, or DVD worth about $10 for each visit. You will stay with or near your child for each visit.
We hope that you are interested in participating in this exciting project. If you would like to learn more or to make an appointment, please contact us at 404-413-6294 or email NeuroLearnLab@gsu.edu. We will provide directions to our lab if you make an appointment.
Thank you for your interest in helping us understand brain development in deaf and typically hearing children. Your participation is important to the development of new advances that will lead to improvements in the education and treatment of our children.
For further information please visit our Parents page.
Sincerely,
Christopher M. Conway, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Director, NeuroLearn Lab
Urban Life Building, Room 751
Department of Psychology
P.O. Box 5010
Georgia State University
Atlanta, GA 30302-5010
Research Team:
Joanne Deocampo, PhD
Jerome Daltrozzo, PhD
Gretchen Smith, MS
Leyla Eghbalzad, BA