A three day workshop """"""""Administering the NIH Toolbox"""""""" is proposed to provide the first ever formal training exposure to newly developed, standardized measures that are intended to provide efficiency of resources by providing a common metric in domains of cognition, motor, sensory, and emotional function across clinical studies. The workshop is intended to meet the needs of a rapidly growing group of researchers committed to utilizing the 43 instruments (soon to be released) that comprise the NIH Toolbox for the Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function, as sponsored by the 16 Institutes, Centers and Offices that make up the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research. The workshop will be held in conjunction with a two day conference """"""""The NIH Toolbox for Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function"""""""" introducing the final instrument battery. The conference will be the second of two planned conferences on the evolution and use of the NIH Toolbox. The NIH Toolbox is a collection of brief yet comprehensive assessment tools measuring motor, cognitive, sensory and emotional function. Available in both English and Spanish, it is particularly suited for use in longitudinal epidemiologic studies or intervention trials for people ages 3-85 years. Interest in the NIH Toolbox has been strong, as evidenced in over 130 inquiries to utilize the new instruments in advance of release. The formal public release and conference, to be held September 10-11, 2012, has the goal of providing participants with the information necessary for them to understand how to utilize NIH Toolbox instruments in their own research. This will be accomplished via a combination of lectures, interactive demonstrations, and panel discussions. The workshop, to be offered September 12-15, 2012, immediately following the public conference, will prepare attendees to use the NIH Toolbox by 1) teaching them how to select and download measures;and 2) providing formal training in administering the instruments. While self- training materials will be included in the final NIH Toolbox product portfolio, live instruction from expert trainers will enable more efficient learnin. All necessary equipment and supplies to facilitate training will be provided during the proposed workshop. Three initial, day-long concurrent group sessions will teach the basic knowledge and skills to enable users to access the NIH Toolbox instruments from Assessment Center (a free online research management system managed by Northwestern University), and administer the self- and proxy-report measures of emotional and sensory function. This will be followed by four concurrent smaller group sessions, each led by experienced NIH Toolbox trainers, that will provide step-by-step instruction on how to administer the performance-based tests of cognitive, motor and sensory function. Sessions will include supervised practice to allow for real-time formative feedback to trainees. Attendees will be given training manuals and videos to take with them, thereby enabling further NIH Toolbox dissemination. Approximately 250 people are expected to attend the conference, with 60 participating in the intensive training workshop.
A three day workshop """"""""Administering the NIH Toolbox"""""""" is proposed to provide the first ever formal training exposure to newly developed, standardized measures that are intended to provide efficiency of resources by providing a common metric in domains of cognition, motor, sensory, and emotional function across clinical studies. The workshop is intended to meet the needs of a rapidly growing group of researchers committed to utilizing the 43 instruments (soon to be released) that comprise the NIH Toolbox for the Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function, as sponsored by the 16 Institutes, Centers and Offices that make up the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research.
