The LEAP-CP project has now finished recruitment in Kolkata India, with 749 babies with birth risk factors screened with the General Movements and HINE, and 142 babies at high risk of CP (12-40 weeks) recruited. Our dedicated team led by Dr Katherine Benfer of site coordinators and community disability workers from our partner organisations (Asha Bavan Centre, Dr. BC Roy Postgraduate Institute of Paediatric Science, Child in Need Institute, Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy, and Apollo Gleneagles Hospital), have reached this milestone.
The Learning through Everyday Activities with Parents (LEAP-CP) intervention is a community-based, parent delivered early detection and intervention program for babies at high risk of cerebral palsy. In low and middle income contexts, where geographical distance and the high cost of health care are barriers for families to access intervention. LEAP-CP is an innovative peer to peer approach that provides support in the home to help caregivers be their baby’s best teacher.
Nataya Branjerdporn, 2018 University Medal recipient has joined the team to undertake her PhD with the LEAP-CP trial. Supported by the 2018 Occupational Therapy Australia Elspeth Pearson Award and Australian Government Research Training Provider Scholarship, she will seek to evaluate changes in the level of parent-child interaction, maternal wellbeing and home enrichment outcomes as a result of LEAP-CP. She will also evaluate the implementation of LEAP-CP to understand what worked, how, in what circumstances and for whom it was effective. To do this, mothers providing and receiving care will be interviewed to understand their perspective. To assist with Nataya’s data collection and translation, Research Assistant Sourhita Majumder has joined the team.
The study was recently presented by Dr Benfer at The Australasian Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine (AusACPDM) conference in New Zealand and European Academy of Childhood Disability (EACD) conference in Georgia.
Relevant publications
Benfer KA, Novak I, Morgan C, et al Community-based parent-delivered early detection and intervention programme for infants at high risk of cerebral palsy in a low-resource country (Learning through Everyday Activities with Parents (LEAP-CP): protocol for a randomised controlled trial.BMJ Open 2018;8:e021186. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-021186
Contact Details
For more information, please contact Dr Katherine Benfer, E: k.benfer@uq.edu.au.
This project is funded by Cerebral Palsy Alliance and Endeavour QEII Diamond Jubilee Fellowship.
Chief Investigators: Dr Katherine Benfer, Prof. Roslyn Boyd, Prof. Iona Novak, Prof. Naila Khan, Dr Anjan Bhattacharya, Dr Cathy Morgan, Dr Koa Whittingham, Dr Kristie Bell, Prof. Robert Ware, and Dr Sasaka Bandaranyake
