The Toolbox Domain groups are completing the validation phase of the project. Based on validation results, final measure selection will occur in early spring of 2010. All Toolbox measures will subsequently be administered to a large community-based probability sample (N=5800; 3000 children and 2800 adults; half English and half Spanish speaking) ranging from 3-85 years of age for the purpose of establishing initial norms and further evaluating psychometric properties. This phase will begin in August 2010.

Toolbox members awarded International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology Poster Award

Congratulations to Pamela Dalton, PhD and Julie Menella, PhD, of the NIH Toolbox Olfaction subdomain team for the 2nd Prize award within the Clinical Poster section at the American Society of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology Annual Meeting in May, 2009 in Seattle, WA.The poster was titled: Valuation of Olfactory Function in Children Utilizing a Six Item Scrath and Sniff Test.

NIH Toolbox Pediatric Option Approved for Funding

We are pleased to report that the NIH Directors who make up the Neuroscience Blueprint have approved funding the Toolbox “Pediatric Option.” Therefore we are “full speed ahead” on the development, validation and norming of instruments for children as young as 3 years of age. We have been presented with a truly exciting opportunity to demonstrate the validity of these efforts in pediatric populations and look forward to expanding our focus on this project.

Comments and questions

We invite your comments and questions about the NIH Toolbox project.

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Principal Investigator

Richard Gershon, PhD, is Associate Chairman, Department of Medical Social Sciences, and faculty member, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University. Dr. Gershon is a leading expert in the application of Item Response Theory (IRT) in individualized and large scale assessments. He has developed item banks and Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT) for educational, clinical, and health applications - including cognitive, emotional, and motor applications. He is currently principal investigator on the NIH Toolbox. He is also co-investigator and measurement development expert on each of the following projects: NINDS sponsored project “Quality of Life Outcomes in Neurological Disorders” (Neuro-QoL), NIH Roadmap project “Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) and the cancer-specific supplement, plus several smaller projects.Email: gershon@northwestern.edu