Grandparents and Family Connections

Class Description: The past 25 years have provided astonishing new evidence that between 80 and 85% of lifelong brain development has been completed by the age of 3. The wiring of our brain's "superhighways" - created in infant, toddler and young children's brain infrastructure - is influenced in real time by children's moment-by-moment, everyday experiences with their parents, grandparents, extended family members, and care providers outside the family. This class outlines the mission and programs of USF's Family Study Center, which for the past 23 years has supported families in Pinellas County and Tampa Bay by working with the network of caring adults responsible for each child's care and upbringing - children's "coparents" - to optimize healthy early brain development, kindergarten readiness, and positive life trajectories, even in challenging circumstances.

Instructor Bio: Dr. James McHale, Professor of Psychology and Director of the internationally recognized Family Study Center, is a USF alumnus who received his master's degree in Developmental Psychology from Tulane University and his PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. Since 2020, he has been recognized as one of the world's top 2% of scientists by the Stanford-Elsevier rankings, which uses standardized citation indicators to identify the most cited and influential experts globally across nearly all scientific disciplines. At USF, he teaches popular large enrollment courses in Introduction to Psychology and leads a unique graduate certificate program in Infant-Family Mental Health.

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Host or Publisher The Family Study Center