Iowa Child Welfare Research Station

The station was founded in 1917. A leader of the Iowa Congress of Mothers (a chapter of the National Congress of Mothers, which later became the Parent-Teacher Association) named Cora Bussey Hillis arranged for the station to be sited at the University of Iowa and procured funding from the state legislature and the Women's Christian Temperance Union. Hillis worked with Carl Emil Seashore, then the head of the psychology department at the University of Iowa, to establish the station. Seashore helped author the following law, which was eventually signed into law in 1917: With the exception of a stint of military service during World War I Dr. Bird Thomas Baldwin served as the first director of the station until his death on May 11, 1928. In 1922 the station listed these employees: • Director Baldwin • Paid, full time—4 nurses, 1 social worker, 3 clerical or other helpers. • Paid, part time—1 physician, 1 nurse, 1 social worker, 3 clerical or other helpers. • Volunteer, part time—4 physicians. ==Research==

The Station was the first institution in the world devoted to the study of the "normal child." Among its contributions to this field of knowledge, the Station conducted studies in the normal physical growth rates of children, studies in intellectual development in children and its relation to environment, studies in classroom management techniques that support positive outcomes, and developed collections of data regarding speech development and therapy for children with cerebral palsy. The Station also helped establish research standards for conducting research into child development. == References ==