Projects

Advancing early childhood learning through collaborative research.

Overview

The Early Childhood Research Center (ECRC) has a long history of conducting and supporting interdisciplinary research that advances understanding of early learning and development. In partnership with faculty and researchers across institutions, ECRC has served as a site for innovative studies exploring cognitive, social-emotional, linguistic, and creative development in young children. Explore past, present and ongoing projects below.

Ongoing and Previous Studies

Working Towards a Guided Exploration Approach
3/1/19
This two-year design-based study explores a guided-exploration approach to visual arts in a preschool classroom, highlighting how collaborative teaching with an artist-in-residence supports children’s artistic identity, observation, communication, and aesthetic learning.
Picturebooks for Social Justice
4/1/22
This two-year qualitative study examines how interactive read-alouds and picturebooks can foster social justice, critical consciousness, and inclusive community building in preschool classrooms through dialogue and artmaking.
Embodied Improvisation: Exploring How Teachers Support Young Children’s Engagement with Intelligent Agents
11/7/23
This study examines how preschool children develop self-regulation while learning computational thinking through teacher-guided, hands-on programming activities, highlighting self-regulation as a socially shared and embodied process.
Preschoolers’ Embodied and Shared Self-Regulation through Computational Thinking
10/13/23
This study examines how preschool children develop self-regulation while learning computational thinking through teacher-guided, hands-on programming activities, highlighting self-regulation as a socially shared and embodied process.
Balancing Freedom and Guidance: Kindergarten Teachers’ Strategies for Outdoor Play (Post-COVID Era)
10/13/24
Study of how kindergarten teachers balance autonomy and guidance in outdoor play at ECRC, identifying seven strategies to support safe play post-COVID.
Miss Hannah’s Toy Library
3/3/25
This study examines how play can strengthen home-to-school connections in the preschool years. Through a co-designed school-based Toy Library, families and educators collaborated to support children’s learning and development through play.
Playful Computational Thinking Learning in and Beyond Early Childhood Classrooms
7/2/25
This study examines playful computational thinking in early childhood, offering practical strategies for toy selection, scaffolding, and child-led learning.
UB Social Development Lab
10/13/24
Research in the Social Development Lab in the Department of Psychology at the University at Buffalo, SUNY uses a developmental psychopathology orientation to study various subtypes of aggressive behavior, peer victimization, and other social behaviors across development.

Fisher Price Partnership Projects

Fisher Price Play Lab
11/7/23
In partnership with the Fisher-Price Play Lab, Dr. Keely Benson teaches a course for master’s students in the UB Teach and Early Childhood/Childhood programs in the Spring semester. Students conduct research with the Play Lab by facilitating play sessions with our ECRC students.
Ongoing Research Efforts with Fisher Price
11/7/23
The Early Childhood Research Center (ECRC) collaborates with Fisher-Price on ongoing research initiatives, with a particular focus on ethnographic studies. These projects often involve Fisher-Price teams visiting the ECRC to observe and engage with our students, examining specific play behaviors, developmental stages, toys, and products.