by Jack El-Hai

In 1925, the University became the home of one of the nation’s leading centers of scientific research on child development—one that has consistently ranked among the top three in the country—without spending a penny of its own. The Institute of Child Welfare (now called the Institute of Child Development) received its start-up funding from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial in New York, which must have been very pleased with the quick return on its investment.

In his memos and reports, John Anderson, the institute’s first director, announced a steady stream of projects and research. In short order the institute opened a laboratory nursery school, launched an instructional program in developmental psychology, recruited renowned child development expert Florence Goodenough to teach and do research, and brought in more faculty to investigate topics including the biological bases of behavior and normal patterns of physical growth.

“The early history of the institute is that it really came about from funding to improve the lives of children and families,” says Richard Weinberg, child development professor and director of the institute from 1989 to 1999. The goal was to research child development to promote the well-being of kids, not to advance knowledge for its own sake. This emphasis would change in the years to come.

At the start, however, the institute largely focused on parent education—in extension classes, lectures, traveling exhibits, radio shows, and newspaper columns. But a serious problem soon arose: child development researchers at the institute could not keep up with the heavy demand from parents for more child-rearing information. Education threatened to run ahead of child development study, and in 1928 the institute began a long transition to reallocate most of its resources to research. Nonetheless, it served more than 89,000 members of the public, mostly mothers, between 1925 and 1939.

The institute’s rededication to research bore fruit during the 1930s when staff and faculty led important investigations of childhood language development; the physical development of infants, children, and adolescents; and the phases of early motor development.

Observing how children approach activities can tell researchers a lot about developmental milestones.

During the 1950s, the institute began another stage of its evolution. John Anderson retired in 1954 and his successor was Harold Stevenson. “It was a big turning point when Stevenson became the director,” Weinberg says. “He decided that we had to beef up the research focus in such areas as social development and learning cognition, and to build up the faculty in those areas. He gave a lot of impetus to making the institute what it is today.”

Since 1925 the institute had been overseen by the University’s Office of Academic Administration, with its academic instruction taking place within the College of Science, Literature, and the Arts (CSLA). In 1957 Stevenson reached an unusual agreement with the College of Education. The institute became a department of the college, but its undergraduate academic offerings remained in the CSLA. “Although the child psychology major remains today in the College of Liberal Arts, there is a lot more commitment to the institute in the college than there had been previously,” Weinberg observes.

In the decades since that administrative shift, the institute has opened its arms to the Center for Cognitive Sciences, the Center for Early Education and Development, the Center for Research in Interpersonal Relationships, and the Harris Training Center for Infant and Toddler Development. It has strengthened its programs and offerings in such fields of study as cognitive development, perceptual development, cognitive neuroscience, and cognitive psychopathology. International contacts have grown.

Today’s Institute of Child Development remains committed to adding to our knowledge of human development and promoting the welfare of children of all backgrounds and in all settings. “When you look at publications in the field of child development and when you see the people who are making the advances, you can see that the institution has been a great source of talent around the world,” Weinberg says. “It’s one of the cornerstones of the whole field of child development.”