Parent instructions for General Movements Video recording
About the Study
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We are testing the effectiveness of a short (2 minute) video instruction for parents of infants in the first 4 months of life. to The 2 minute instructions show how to record a 3 minutes video of their infant's spontaneous movements. The study is not evaluating the infant movements, but if the instructions for parents are useful. This will help us communicate better with parents in further research, the aide us in helping infants with special needs and their families.
If you have 5 minutes, please view this video and record your infant's movements.
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The video of your baby can be transferred to our research team in several ways, please email or send us a message to the contact below:
Contact us at: Tel/Whatsapp +39-342-3797481 or https://is.gd/videogms
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Intersubjectivity
About the Study
The aim of this study is to observe the early interactive modes of parent-child dyads and the child's communication skills in infants with typical development and those at risk for neurodevelopmental difficulties. To this end, short video recordings (about 5 minutes) of parent-child interactions are recorded, and standardized observational scales for video coding are used. Parents are asked to fill out a battery of questionnaires aimed at assessing the emotional state of the parent (depression, stress and anxiety), the quality of life of the child and the self-assessment by the parent of the quality of interaction with their child. Finally, the cognitive, motor and visual outcome of the child at 12 and 24 months are evaluated.
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Contact: Dr. Fabrizia Festante ffestante@fsm.unipi.it
Early Signs of ADHD
About the Study
The general objective of this study is to identify neuromotor signs early stages of ADHD, or the signs highlighted during the first year of life. We are testing the hypothesis that neuromotor development and motor repertoire in the first year of life is altered in babies at risk of developing ADHD. We evaluate home videos of children between 8 and 18 years old from their first year of life. All families are invited to participate, including those with children with a diagnosis of ADHD and typically developing.
More information about participation in the ADHD study:
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Contact: Sabrina Delsecco sdelsecco@fsm.unipi.it
VISIBLE: Vision Intervention for Seeing Impaired Babies through Learning and Enrichment
About the Study
VISIBLE is a novel early intervention RCT funded by the Cerebral Palsy Alliance for infants with significant motor and vision difficulties and their families in the first year of live. It was designed by the SMILE Lab team in Pisa based on many years of expertise to address a gap in rehabilitative interventions for infants with brain damage and severe vision impairments. Infants with severe cerebral visual impairment (CVI) at high risk of Cerebral Palsy (CP) at 3-6 months will be enrolled into a 6-month intervention program. This pilot RCT study will assess the feasibility of a vision-awareness program actively engaging parents in enriching their baby’s vision and development. The home-based program of goal directed early intervention will be supported by multidisciplinary team through parent training and fortnightly home visits. The daily intervention activities will be provided by the parents and will focus on environmental enrichment and targeted vision-aware developmental goals. Behavioural assessments will be utilized to evaluate the program efficacy on vision, motor, and general developmental function. The five recruiting sites (Napoli area in Italy, and Australian sites in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia) will utilize existing early detection and intervention networks to ensure successful completion of the study.
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Contact: Ada Bancale abancale@fsm.unipi.it. Olena Chorna ochorna@fsm.unipi.it
e -TIPS
About the Study
e-TIPCS is a multisite study developed by a team at Newcastle University and made possible by an NIHR Career Development Fellowship to Dr Anna Basu. It was initially funded by the United Kingdom National Institute of Health Research, and currently includes the SMILE Lab as a.recruiting partner. The study involves babies aged 0-6 months who have had a perinatal stroke and their families and carers.
eTIPS is a home based parent-delivered intervention for babies affected by perinatal stroke. Families involved are given developmental resources relevant to their baby's condition and additional support and advice throughout.
the SMILE Lab is undertaking a parallel feasibility study - so we have translated all of the family materials into Italian! An educational package for therapists and community health professionals is being developed, thanks to further funding from the Tiny Lives Charity.
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Contact: Martina Orlando morlando@fsm.unipi.it Andrea Guzzetta aguzzetta@fsm.unipi.it
Study Information Video
NIDA: Italian Network for the Early Recognition of Autism Spectrum Disorders
About the Study
NIDA was established by the National Institute of Health (ISS) and is an Italian network for the surveillance and assessment of neurodevelopment of high-risk children in the first 36 months of life. Some Italian regions such as Lombardy, Tuscany, Lazio and Sicily take part in the project in order to identify children at risk of autism before the age of two and carry out their timely inclusion in a personalized therapeutic intervention program. The Italian Network for the Early Recognition of Autism Spectrum Disorders (NIDA) currently involves some of the most important Italian clinical and research centers dealing with diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders and fielding a multidisciplinary team composed of neurobiologists, child neuropsychiatrists, psychologists, speech therapists, neuro and psychomotor therapists of developmental age, biostatistics and biomedical engineers. Children are followed from the first days of life through the monitoring of neonatal crying and spontaneous motor skills, the study of the interaction and social communication of the child with an adult in his natural environment and the assessment of cognitive, linguistic, adaptive development and social and communicative.
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Contact: Federica D'acunto federica.dacunto@fsm.unipi.it Andrea Guzzetta aguzzetta@fsm.unipi.it
HABIT-ILE: Hand-arm bimanual intensive therapy including lower extremities
About the Study
What it is? Using games and functional activities, HABIT-ILE is an intensive training of bimanual activities, inferior limbs and/or postural control stimulation. Developed in 2011 at the Clinical University of Louvain (Belgium), HABIT-ILE proved its efficacy to improve motor function and autonomy for children aged 6-18 years old and has already demonstrated good results in a pilot study for children aged 1-4 years old. This therapy is based on motor-skill learning theory, the same method that everybody use to learn how to drive or how to become an athlete: short-time intensive practice (50hours in 2 weeks), repetition of active movement and increase of difficulty in a playful context that motivate the child and focuses on functional activities that parent/child defined before the therapy. Each child have the same therapist(s) with him/her the entire therapy. The therapy is part of an european research protocol that aim to evaluate the effects of HABIT-ILE for children aged 1 to 4 years old. The protocol includes the therapy and the assessments of the child’s motor, sensorial, kinematic and neuroplastic changes.
For whom? For children with cerebral palsy aged 1 to 4 years old who experience challenges with hand and gross motor function
How and when? The therapy will run for 2 weeks in April 2020 and the assessments during the year 2020. Each day, from Monday to Friday, children have 5hours of therapy from 9 am to noon and from 2.30pm to 4.30pm. The therapy takes place at the Stella Maris Foundation in Calambrone, Pisa. As it is a research protocol, the participation is free of charge.
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Contact: Julie Paradis jparadis@fsm.unipi.it Andrea Guzzetta aguzzetta@fsm.unipi.it
Natural History of Cerebral Palsy
About the Study
The project, funded by the Cerebral Palsy Alliance, will aim to describe the early natural history of CP in infants aged 0-2 years in a large prospective longitudinal cohort. Specifically, we will determine: i. The relationship between severity of motor disability in CP and the location, extent and nature of the brain lesion on term MRI and early standardized neurological assessment HINE scores using the Hammersmith Infant Neurological Examination ii. The relationship between motor type and topography and the location and nature of the brain lesion on term MRI iii. The relationship between motor tests at 3- 4 months and gross motor function as classified by GMFCS and hand function at 2 years iv. The relationship between severe cerebral vision impairment at 3- 4 months and gross motor function as classified by GMFCS and hand function at 2 years v. The rates of hip displacement (i.e. proportion of children with hip percentage migration >30%) at 2 years following the implementation strategy compared to current practice? vi. The changes of parental mental health of infants with CP over the first two years of life.
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Contact: O.Chorna ochorna@fsm.unipi.it S.Del Secco sdelsecco@fsm.unipi.it A. Guzzetta aguzzetta@fsm.unipi.it
AGMA: Automization of General Movements Assessment
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About the Study
The project, funded by the AACPDM, has the main objective of characterizing the spontaneous motility patterns of the newborn and infant (General Movements) using one or more objective measures using RGB-D cameras. The study of the movement performed through touchless and marker-free depth analysis will be compared with the qualitative analysis as a gold-standard reference measure of spontaneous motility.
Contact: Viviana Marchi vmarchi@fsm.unipi.it Andrea Guzzetta aguzzetta@fsm.unipi.it
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PROMPT: to improve speech motor abilities in preschool children with cerebral palsy
About the Study
The project, funded by the PROMPT Institute, has the main objective of testing the effectiveness of intensive 3 week PROMPT treatment in a group of preschool children with CP and motor speech disorders (dysarthria/apraxia of speech). We plan a randomized trial of PROMPT in children with CP using a wait-list control group. Eligible children will be randomized into either immediate treatment or wait-list-control groups. This design allows every child meeting inclusion criteria to receive the treatment.
Contact: Simona Fiori sfiori@fsm.unipi.it
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LUNCH: Lung Ultrasound for early detection of silent and apparent aspiratioN in infants and young CHildren with cerebral palsy and other developmental disabilities: a new, fast, safe, cost-effective infant-friendly imaging tool to easily monitor feeding, improve outcomes and reduce morbidities
About the Study
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The study will test the effectiveness of lung ultrasound (LUS) in the dynamic assessment of aspiration related to abnormal swallowing in infants and young children with neurological impairment (cerebral palsy/developmental disabilities). Neither standardized measure is available, nor protocols for invasive fibre-optic endoscopic examination of swallowing (FEES) and x-Ray videofluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS) to be used in such population. LUS offers several advantages over standard of care assessments. All these advantages may lead infants to improve clinical behavioural and neurological outcomes and reduce stressful interactions with caregivers, and to reduce morbidities and hospitalization costs for respiratory and non-respiratory complications related to swallowing disorders.
Contact: Simona Fiori sfiori@fsm.unipi.it
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