The CDL will ensure that research activities are safe and compatible with children's ongoing preschool experiences. The CDL will provide opportunities to WSU faculty and students to observe and study the development of children representing the diversity of children living within the metropolitan area of Detroit. The CDL will provide a setting for WSU faculty and students to conduct unobtrusive observation and collection of information on children's growth and development. The CDL will provide access, with staff and parental consent, for research on child development at WSU that may require work with individual children or small groups of children. The Child Development Lab is equipped with observation rooms equipped with one-way mirrors that permit unobtrusive observation of children in every classroom.
Sound systems permit collection of audible data from classrooms.
A room is also available for individual or small group interviewing and testing. Prospective researchers must give them a copy of an approved Human Investigation Committee Behavioral Protocol Summary Form, including an approved consent form for parents. The letter should briefly describe the proposed study, state a time line and daily schedule for all aspects of the study involving the CDL, and describe the characteristics of children desired for inclusion in the proposed project. Names and descriptions of everyone who will observe or collect information in the CDL must be included. Finally, researchers should indicate what facilities at the CDL they will need for their proposed study.