Science on State Street

We had so much fun at Science on State Street this weekend! 🥼🔬🧑‍💻 Thank you to everyone who stopped by to learn more about the brain, how it supports development in movement, and how we try to study these topics in our research!

Introducing Dr. Kim!

Congrats to our PhD student, HyunJoon Kim who successfully defended his dissertation this Spring!

Open Streets Roxbury

In the "Open Streets" series hosted by the city of Boston, Boston neighborhoods are closed off to traffic and pedestrians can explore activities run by various community organizations! This year, we challenged families to the "box and box challenge." This clinical assessment tool is a fun way to compare hand use between hands!

Play to Thrive

Play to Thrive is an annual event hosted by the Pediatric Stroke Council from MassGeneral Hospital for Children and Young Genetic Stroke Alliance. We loved sharing some of our favorite fine motor activities are are very grateful to have spent the day with other labs and organizations supporting the CP community. It was so neat to see and try out adaptive equipment that expands access to play for all!

We are all stocked up for our summer participants!

Check out this sneak peek at a few of our snacks and prizes for an exciting new hand and brain use study! We welcome children ages 6-17 into the DEMR Lab this summer to join!

New publication!

Check out this new publication by our PhD students, lab manager, and principal investigator!

Kim, H., Kelly, M., Su, X., & Ferre, C. (2025). Transcranial direct current stimulation and motor function in children with cerebral palsy: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology. doi: 10.1111/dmcn.16365. 

Science on State Street

We had so much fun tabling at Framingham State University's Earth Day-themed event, Science on State Street! The theme of our table was "Grow your brain garden!" Just like gardens need water and sunlight to blossom, your brain needs rest, movement, and nutrients to grow. Visitors at our table tried out movement, sensory, and problem-solving challenges. We love talking about all of the amazing things growing brains can do!

Introducing… Participant Passports!

When children ages 6-18 visit our lab, they receive their "DEMR Research Ranger" passport! Participants earn a brain stamp on each page to mark their accomplishments at locations like "Board Game Beach" and "Block Boulevard." Each stop along the journey is explained in child-friendly language, of course!

The DEMR Lab tabled at Open Streets Allston/Brighton

At this fun community event, we got to teach about the brain, connect with other science lovers, boggle minds with optical illusions, and teach about hand dominance with the box and blocks challenge!

PhD student Evan Yarnall’s symposium talk

Evan delivered a talk titled "Bimanual skills during infancy" at the AACPDM conference!