Abbreviation Gesell Institute Region served United States, Canada Founder Frances Lillian Ilg Staff 11 Type Nonprofit organization | Formation 1950 Executive Director Marcy Guddemi Founded 1950 Number of volunteers 5 | |
 | ||
Headquarters New Haven, Connecticut, United States Similar National Association for the Ed, Autism Research Institute, New England College o, Clark University | ||
The Gesell Institute of Child Development is a non-profit organization located in New Haven, Connecticut. The organization is named after Arnold Gesell and is dedicated to researching and understanding child growth and development. The mission is to promote the principles of child development as the basis for all decision making for young children.
Contents
History
The Gesell Institute was created by Dr. Louise Bates Ames and Dr. Frances Ilg after Gesell's retirement from the Yale Child Study Center in 1950.
Between 1961 and 1984, the Gesell Institute offered post-doctorate fellowships in ophthalmology.
In 1964, the three volume set Soothing Sounds for Baby was released as a collaboration with American composer Raymond Scott.
In 2008, Gesell Radio was created as a podcast on the organization's website. It is part of the BAM Radio Network, and features a program called Body, Mind, and Child.
Currently the organization has a small number of staff in its New Haven headquarters, and an eight-member national lecture staff across the country. The lecturers individually hold multi-day GDO-R workshops for teachers and education professionals throughout the United States.
Gesell Developmental Observation-Revised
The Gesell Developmental Observation-Revised (GDO-R) is a comprehensive, multi-dimensional assessment system that assists educators and other professionals in understanding characteristics of child behavior in relation to typical growth patterns between 2½ to 9 years of age. It uses direct observation to evaluate a child’s cognitive, language, motor and social-emotional responses. Your child’s performance will correspond to a Performance Level Rating (Age Appropriate, Emerging or Concern) and the GDO-R will result in a Developmental Age.
The results of the GDO-R provide information to both parents and teachers regarding a child’s educational needs. This shared information portrays the child’s strengths as well as areas that may need additional support. The results provide a teacher with a greater understanding of the child’s Developmental Age which then provides direction for differentiated instruction.
Books Published by Gesell Institute
The Gesell Institute has also published a series of child development books. The original set were written by Arnold Gesell, Louise Bates Ames, and Frances Ilg:
The previous books were broken down into single year books and rewritten by Louise Bates Ames.