The HRB funded BiHiVE2 study has focused on predicting long term learning disability in children following birth related brain injury. Unfortunately there are, currently, no reliable methods of assessing learning ability in children at a young age. Current developmental assessments focus on developmental milestones. They are not true tests of cognitive ability, are time consuming and observer dependant.
We have worked with computer scientists to develop a tablet based psychological assessment tool, which measures cognitive ability in an engaging and interactive way at 18-30 months. This assessment technique has the potential to produce a sea-change in how we assess young children. Our collaborators in Karolinska Institute (KI), and the Institute of Child Health (ICH), London have requested the use of the application for their follow up assessments in children, both in the BiHiVE2 cohort, and additional high risk children in UK and Indian cohorts. These studies will allow us to disseminate our findings to influential researchers in the field of child neuropsychology. Sharing the Babyscreen app would also allow us to test many more infants, and to develop a database of age and sex related normative reference ranges. This requires that the app is used in a standardised fashion by trained researchers. We request additional funding to develop an online training resource, to share with registered collaborators. Once training is successfully completed participants will be added to the Babyscreen app as users and normative data collected will be uploaded to a central server for analysis by the programming team.
