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Research at the Hanna Perkins Center Basic Research in any field seeks to elucidate the underlying mechanisms operative with any problem as a means of delineating the basic causes of that problem. When basic causative factors can be isolated, ways can be devised to plan rational remedies for the effects of the problem; measures sought to prevent the occurrence of the problem. As a child development complex, Hanna Perkins has always been involved in research. The Research Methodology of Hanna Perkins has always been service based and treatment based; a response to the problems brought to us by the children, parents, and early childhood education community that we serve. Only when the problems brought to us by our constituency, rather than our pre-selection of the, are the focus of any study can one hope for a full utilization of what the children, parents, and community have to teach us about the disturbance or area of difficulty. For example, no effort was made at Hanna Perkins to seek out for study children who had lost a parent through death. Rather, children were treated for the problems they presented and then, only over the years, did it become obvious what role the bereavement played in their troubles. When twenty-three such cases had been intensively studied by us, the findings of these cases were integrated to form the basis for the definitive study of child bereavement, A Child's Parent Dies - published in 1974 but still a classic in the field and translated into more than a dozen different languages. This method of studying what is presented to us through our observations of and work with children, parents, and early childhood educators and caregivers remains the basis of our research approach, one akin to an ethnographic approach often used in anthropological research. It has continued to serve us in our studies of toddler development and of children with severe and early disturbances. More recently, it leads us in our ongoing studies of adopted children and of children in foster care. In an ongoing way, the Faculty, Clinic Associates and Teaching Staff at Hanna Perkins all participate in this work. To date these efforts have resulted in the numerous books and pamphlets published by and through the Center. For a further sampling of this work please review the articles at the links provided below: Ethnography and Childcare Practice Consultation in Child Care Centers: Supporting young children's healthy development Referral to the Hanna Perkins School: The role of relationships
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