Dear Parents:

I would like to invite you and your family (mom, dad and toddler) to participate in a research project designed to gather information about toddlers' developing understanding of themselves and of others. More specifically, their understanding of how others'  thinking may differ from their own. The development of young children's social understanding has been an important topic within the past couple of decades, and with good reason. The development of these early skills during toddlerhood have been linked to individual differences in social functioning and in the ability to form and maintain friendships during the preschool and kindergarten years.

If your family is interested in participating, you will be asked to visit the Child Development and Family Research Lab at IPFW for one 60-minute session. Please know that you and your child may withdraw from the session at any time. The research staff will try to schedule a time that is most convenient for you and your family (including evenings and weekends). During the session, each parent will be asked to complete a short set of surveys and to participate in brief a 3-minute, audio-taped interview. In addition, each parent will be asked to interact with his/her child during a book reading task.  Your child will also be asked to participate in some fun and playful tasks to assess his/her understanding of his/her own mental processes and those of others (using puppets). You may watch your child perform these tasks through a one-way observation mirror. All of these tasks will be videotaped.  At the completion of the session, each parent will receive a $20 egift certificate to Amazon.com ($40 total for each family) and your child will receive a small toy for his/her participation.

If interested, please call Dr. Brenda Lundy at (260) 481-6342 or the lab office (260) 481-0431 or send  an email to: lundyb@ipfw.edu.

Thank you,
Brenda L. Lundy, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology
Indiana  Univ..-Purdue Univ.. Fort Wayne