Marji Erickson Warfield, Interim Director
Dr. Erickson Warfield’s research has focused on investigating the development of children with disabilities and the adaptation of their families over time and examining the impact of parenting a child with a disability on balancing work and family roles.
She has also directed projects evaluating early intervention and other educational, health, and support programs and services for children and youth with disabilities and special health care needs and for young children at risk of delay due to a variety of environmental factors.
About the Institute
Nathan and Toby Starr Center for Mental Retardation
Research in the Nathan and Toby Starr Center for Mental Retardation has focused on the impact on families of lifelong caregiving for a member with mental retardation or other developmental disabilities, the impact of early intervention services on children and families, and the access to health care for children with special health care needs. Among its many landmark studies are:
- the first systematic analysis of the implications for service agencies of the programmatic needs of persons with mental retardation who are elders;
- the largest study ever conducted of elderly parents with adult children with mental retardation living at home; and
- the longest-running study of a cohort of infants and toddlers with special needs who received early intervention services, followed through age 23 years to investigate their developmental patterns and the adaptation of their families.