Unique Child Study

Researchers at Columbia University's Paul F. Lazarsfeld Center for the Social Sciences are studying how children who are unique in some way are identified and developed. They are currently collecting stories from parents with children who have been identified as gifted, children who have unique artistic, scientific, or physical abilities, children on the autism spectrum, and children who have been identified as having attention disorders. They have contacted us to invite our readers to consider participating in this study. Peter Bearman, the Director of the Centre and the Principal Investigator, writes:

"While all children are unique, the goal of our study is to identify how children with unique developmental abilities or trajectories develop over early childhood. Parents have different experiences and observations of their child's development and they have different personal resources with which they access services or programs. Parents also differ in the type and extent of their support networks and social relations. And finally, parents make different decisions when finding the right academic, extra-curricular, or other placements for their children. We would like to give parents the chance to tell their stories. Survey responses will help us understand the experiences of unique children as well as their development over time.


We are collecting stories of parents of unique children through an online, semi-structured survey: http://uniquechildstudy.org. You could help our research tremendously by encouraging parents to participate in our study." 


Before posting, I did the survey myself. It took approximately twenty minutes and was very straightforward. If you require any further information, you can contact the researchers at uniquechildstudy[at]columbia[dot]edu. They also have a Facebook page.