NCS South Region Spring 2014 Newsletter Spring 2014

ISSUE 2

VOLUME 1

SPRING 2 01 4

Autism Awareness

South
Region

Your Child. Your Community. Your Country. Children Everywhere.

The National Children’s Study Reaches Milestone

T

he National Children’s Study (NCS)
South Region Team is pleased that so
many participants are continuing to
take part in the Study across our 10
Study Locations (SLs). Once we get in touch
with every participant, we hope that every
participant who originally signed up for the
Study stays in the Study. Our data collection
team has been working hard for the past 15
months to find and speak with every NCS
family. The fact that most participants decided
to continue in the Study shows the commitment
that these families are making to improve
children’s health and well-being for generations
to come.
The NCS South Region Team could have not
reached this goal without the help of community
partners who continue to support the Study. We
would like to thank everyone who invited us to
speak at their organization or attended a

community event during the past year. Thank
you to those who displayed our flyers, liked our
Facebook page(s), followed us on Twitter and
helped spread the word about the NCS in your
communities. There is more to come! We are
excited about many upcoming community
events. To learn more about these events and
find out where we will be next, please read the
“Community Outreach and Engagement”
section on page 3.
We hinted in our Fall 2013 newsletter that the
NCS South Region was about to introduce
something big in 2014. In this issue, we are
proud to announce the arrival of our NCS South
Region Data Collection Mobile Units. While
three SLs have a centrally located field office,
participants in other SLs often cannot easily
travel to an office to complete a Study visit. For
these locations, we are introducing “mobile
units” – a complete office in a van capable of

traveling to a location closer to participants’
homes. To find out if your location is getting a
mobile unit, a field office or both, please read
the “NCS Goes Mobile” section on page 2.
Another piece of exciting news is the
development of the first iPad application for the
NCS by the South Region Team. The section
below briefly discusses the latest progress on
this front. We hope you find this newsletter
helpful and look forward to working with many
of you in the year ahead.

Richard C. Gershon, PhD
Co-Principal Investigator, NCS South Region
Vice Chair for Research, Associate Professor in
Medical Social Sciences and Preventive
Medicine-Health and Biomedical Informatics
Northwestern University

iPad Applications Measure Early Cognition and are
Fun for Kids!
In January 2014, the NCS South Region Team completed the first
version of four new iPad applications (apps). These apps will be
used by the NCS to measure cognition (the ability to process
thoughts) in young children. While using the iPad apps, children
are asked to find and touch shapes, pictures and colors on the iPad
screen. The apps measure if children can sort pictures, recognize
patterns, and identify words with pictures. Using these apps over a
few years will allow the NCS to observe children’s cognition as
they grow. This is an important part of children’s health and
development. The national NCS team is currently reviewing the
first version. This
app should be in the IN THIS ISSUE:
field later this year.  RCEAC, NCS GOES MOBILE, STAFF
SPOTLIGHT .................... …………………….….2
 COMMUNITY OUTREACH, RCEAC M EMBER
INTERVIEW , AUTISM AWARENESS………………..3
 CALENDAR OF EVENTS, AND THE COMMUNITY
W ANTS TO KNOW ………………………………....4