Projects
CONNECT-CP (A Clinical Research Program to Improve Connection, Access and Translation of Evidence in Cerebral Palsy)
CONNECT-CP aims to diagnose cerebral palsy (CP) earlier and ensure all children in Western Australia (WA) have access to early assessment and support.
Accelerate-WA Network: Developing a sustainable family-clinician-researcher network for education and training in the early detection of cerebral palsy for all infants in Western Australia
Accelerate will develop and pilot, a multi-directorate teaching and training network for early detection of cerebral palsy (CP), encompassing key clinical partners across CAHS and WACHS.
Early Moves
The Early Moves study is investigating whether a baby’s early movements can predict difficulties with learning (known as cognitive impairment) later in childhood.
August 2020
Published research
Confident and Trustworthy Model for Fidgety Movement Classification
General movements (GMs) are part of the spontaneous movement repertoire and are present from early fetal life onwards up to age five months. GMs are connected to infants' neurological development and can be qualitatively assessed via the General Movement Assessment. In particular, between the age of three to five months, typically developing infants produce fidgety movements and their absence provides strong evidence for the presence of cerebral palsy.
Inter-rater reliability and agreement of the Bayley-4 in a multidisciplinary team
The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development are widely used to assess early development, yet evidence for inter-rater reliability in multidisciplinary contexts remains limited. This study evaluated inter-rater reliability and agreement of the newest edition, Bayley-4, at age two years when administered by a multidisciplinary allied health team within a longitudinal cohort.
General Movement Assessment in infancy and later cognitive outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis
To evaluate whether the General Movement Assessment in infancy is associated with later cognitive outcomes from early childhood through adulthood.
Implementation Fidelity of a Smartphone Application for Population-Based General Movement Assessment: The Early Moves Study
To describe the infant and maternal characteristics of the Early Moves cohort and to assess representativeness to the general population, and to evaluate the implementation fidelity of an application-based collection of General Movement Assessment (GMA) videos at writhing and fidgety age.
Fine-grained Fidgety Movement Classification using Active Learning
Typically developing infants, between the corrected age of 9-20 weeks, produce fidgety movements. These movements can be identified with the General Movement Assessment, but their identification requires trained professionals to conduct the assessment from video recordings.
Inter-rater reliability and agreement of the General Movement Assessment and Motor Optimality Score-Revised in a large population-based sample
Prechtl's General Movement Assessment (GMA) at fidgety age (3-5 months) is a widely used tool for early detection of cerebral palsy. Further to GMA classification, detailed assessment of movement patterns at fidgety age is conducted with the Motor Optimality Score-Revised.