The Constitutional and Behavioral Research Center for Children and Adolescents

The Constitutional and Behavioral Research Center for Children and Adolescents (CBRC) is a research platform affiliated with the faculty of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University. The aim of CBRC is to provide educational resources for students of the University; for example, teaching quality improvement is one such purpose. And more importantly, CBRC will help to train undergraduate and graduate students to conduct research that includes women and children in all health-related and psychology-related projects. In this case, CBRC cooperates with the Association of Rehabilitation for the Disabled in Guangdong Province and the Mental Health Association of Guangdong Province. In addition, CBRC provides social services in order to promote the construction of psychological health demonstration centers in maternal and child care.

Service Contents
CBRC provides assessment, consultation and intervention for children and their families regarding developmental, behavioral and mental disorders including Autism Spectrum Disorder; Learning Disorders; Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; Language Retardation; Emotional Disorders; and School Phobias. There are several assessments available, such as child developmental evaluation, assessment of intelligence, and nutritional assessment. In addition, CBRC provides sandplay therapy, psychological counseling, and family therapy. Training services for health institutions and social workers can be provided as well.
Over the past two decades, the Center has amassed many achievements on constitutional and behavioral research, especially in the area of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Based on domestic and international cooperative research, the Center has established several evaluation tools. In addition, a group-intervention that consists of behavior management and social interaction-emotion training was developed, which has been confirmed to be effective in improving social adaptation ability and skills of emotion management among children with ASD.

Personnel Qualifications
CBRC now has 11 faculty members, including one professor, four associate professors, five lecturers, and one ancillary staff. Most of them are qualified to be clinical doctors and/or psychological consultants. The evaluators are qualified for a number of professional qualifications including Bailey developmental assessment and Wechsler intelligence test scale (IV version) among others. Additionally, there are over 30 graduate students providing service in CBRC.

Space and Equipment
The Center covers an area of 300 m2, containing a reception hall, a consulting room, a sandplay therapy room, and a group therapy room equipped with various psychological assessment tools and neurophysiologic evaluation equipment such as eye tracking and event related evoked potentials equipment.

Development Prospect
The mission of the Center is to advance the assessment, intervention, psychological counseling, and therapy related to children’s developmental and behavioral disorders. Assistance and support will be given by school and social institutions. Thus we will continuously promote collaboration among maternal and child health organizations in order to be a constitutional and behavioral research center that is known for both its skills and trustworthiness.
 

Director, Prof. JING Jin, Tel: 8620-87333526, Email: jingjin@mail.sysu.edu.cn