Educational and Professional Training

For Students

The Institute provides training for graduate students in clinical and developmental psychology, as well as in other fields, such as social work and education. It also offers research opportunities for Pediatric, Psychiatry, and Radiology residents and fellows. There are research opportunities for undergraduates as well.

Work and study opportunities for medical students considering a specialty in Pediatrics also are available at the Institute. The program is sponsored either through Rutgers' research office or the Department of Pediatrics. Students traditionally work for eight weeks on research projects in progress at the Institute and complete a formal abstract of their research, which subsequently is published or presented at a research conference. The students have the opportunity to observe and study children in a laboratory setting, and they are exposed to data collection and analytic techniques.

Graduate Course- From Neurons to Neighborhoods: Human Development in Context (Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences)

The purpose of this course is to explore issues in human development with an emphasis on infancy and childhood. This course integrates current theories, research and best practices. The content of this course is designed to provide students with (a) fundamental knowledge of early childhood development from a biopsychosocial and ecological perspective, (b) knowledge on how the environment and early childhood experiences affects health, and (c) knowledge on how to develop resilience and health enhancing interventions.

Pediatric Psychology and Social Work Practicum Training Program

The Institute for the Study of Child Development’s Pediatric Psychology and Social Work Practicum Training Program is open to Master’s and doctoral-level students in the field of clinical and school psychology, counseling, social work, and education. The program utilizes students from Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology and Rutgers School of Social Work and integrates students with existing health care teams in Pediatric subspecialties at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and University Hospital.  Institute faculty provides clinical supervision of practicum students.

The program adopts an interdisciplinary approach that considers the effects of biological, behavioral, psychological, social and environmental factors on children’s health, resilience, and recovery.  The goal of the program is to help children and their families cope with the mental health, learning, social, and emotional issues associated with chronic illness.

Practicum students work patients and their families around common problems such as:

• Poor adherence to follow-up appointments and medication
• Emotional distress
• Depression and anxiety
• Social isolation
• Difficulty managing chronic illness
• Family, sibling or peer conflict
• Anger, frustration or acting-out behavior
• Poor patient/staff interactions
• Patient self-injury
• Difficulty accessing services/community resources
• Parenting skill development

Practicum students provide direct services to patients including:

• Crisis intervention
• Screening for mental health problems
• Diagnosis and assessment
• Treatment planning
• Focused individual and family counseling
• Facilitating support groups
• Providing interventions such play and art therapy, and behavioral modification
• Providing educational resources related to the disease
• Advocacy with schools, caregivers and outside agencies (i.e., DCP&P)
• Providing strategies for patients having academic difficulties

Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Pediatric Divisions

Bristol-Myers Squibb Children's Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital