As researchers, an important value we hold is that our science should always strive to reflect the diversity of humans across the planet. Concretely, this means we take steps to ensure that our recruitment of potential participants is broad and inclusive.

In our lab at Harvard, we aim to provide a welcoming space for community members across the greater Boston area, regardless of race, ethnicity, country of origin, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and family composition. We hope to make the experience of participating in research accessible to all families through flexible appointment times and days, available babysitting during the study, free parking, and child gifts/compensation for your time. Within the constraints of our scientific questions, we welcome everyone and hope contributing to science by helping us figure out how babies learn language is fun for our participating families.

Our explicit goal is for the families we recruit to represent the ethnic and racial composition of the surrounding counties. To this end, we continue to explore ways to involve families in our research and are always happy to hear suggestions from members of the community.

Beyond our lab at Harvard, we are committed to increasing inclusivity in science by making the work we do available to scholars anywhere, by posting anonymized data, code, and results in places where they can be useful to scientists and citizens of the world. To keep families who participate in our research (and the taxpayers who support it) informed about what their data is leading us to discover, we share an annual newsletter, available here , alongside making our research articles publicly available .

We hope you join us.

We would love to have you and your child participate! The Laboratory for Development Studies at Harvard welcomes volunteers from infancy through childhood. Join our participant database to be contacted when your child becomes eligible for a study.
Call with questions: 617-384-0001
Website: https://www.harvardlds.org