Developmental psychology, infancy and childhood, prenatal stress, alternative assessment techniques.

David P. Laplante, Ph.D., received his doctoral degree in developmental psychology at the University of Windsor having based his thesis on the visual information processing skills of infants. He obtained funding for his post-doctoral studies from the Medical Research Council of Canada and pursued his post-doctoral fellowship at the Université de Montréal’s Research unit on children's psychosocial maladjustment (GRIP), where he took part in the Québec Study of New-Born Twins (QSNT).

David Laplante has been studying the link between prenatal stress and early childhood development by evaluating the visual and oral information processing skills of children from birth to early childhood to identify future cognitive and behavioural problems. He has also focused on in utero exposure to teratogenic agents, such as prenatal maternal stress, that can cause congenital malformations. He measures the impact such teratogens have on the child’s cognitive, linguistic and behavioural abilities, paying special attention to the relationship between prenatal teratogens and brain morphology.

David Laplante is the research associate coordinating Project Ice Storm, a study investigating the effect of stress caused by the Ice Storm on the development of children while they were in the fetal stage.

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