Rick Wagner, others receive $8.5M for learning disabilities center

Psychology Professor Richard Wagner says the Florida Learning Disabilities Research Center has been awarded $8.5 million from the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD), a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The research funding is spread over five years and began on January 1, 2012.

“It was an open competition with only four centers being funded nationally, as opposed to the more typical competitive renewal situation,” Wagner says.

Similarly, the center received $6 million from NICHD for five years of research beginning in 2006. The focus of the 2006 grant was to devise ways to diagnose dyslexia and other learning disabilities in children at younger ages. The focus of the recent grant is to better understand dyslexia as well as other problems in reading and writing.

Wagner, who is principal investigator (PI) on the new funding, notes that the center is a team effort. Co-PIs from the Department of Psychology are Carol Connor, Jeanette Taylor, Chris Lonigan, and Chris Schatschneider. Co-investigators from the department are Mike Kaschak and post-doc Sara Hart.

Other co-PIs include Stephanie Alotaiba from the College of Education, Yaacov Petscher from the Florida Center for Reading Research, and Elena Grigorenko from the Yale Child Study Center. Co-investigators from the College of Education include Barbara Foorman, Young Suk Kim, Beth Phillips, and Jeanne Wanzek.

Wagner, internationally known for his contributions to literacy research, was named the 2009-2010 Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of Psychology. To read more, go to http://www.fsunews.com/article/20120301/FSVIEW1/120229038/FSU-reading-research-center-receives-8-5-million