Help secure the future of early-intervention research trials.
When Charlotte was born her future was uncertain...
Now it's full of hope and opportunity.
Even before Charlotte was born, doctors weren’t sure she’d make it. Her mum, Melissa was just over 6 months into her pregnancy when she developed life-threatening complications.
Doctors tried everything to delay her labour and buy Charlotte’s lungs precious extra days to develop, but in the end the risk was simply too high and Charlotte was born at just 26 weeks.
She was tiny, weighing only 725 grams and doctors found a bleed on her brain.
Charlotte remained in hospital for 6 months, and even then doctors were unsure what the future would hold for her.
Today, Charlotte is achieving things once considered impossible for a child with her level of cerebral palsy. And it’s thanks to a ground-breaking research trial utilising innovative brain-training techniques conducted right here in Australia.
Your gift today can help more children like Charlotte access life changing research trials.
GAME Research Trial
GAME (Goals, Activity, Motor Enrichment) is an innovative early-intervention research trial. It brings therapy to babies as young as three months, using a unique type of home-based early intervention, parent coaching and play.
Still in trial phase, it’s already producing exciting results. Participants like Charlotte are developing skills and levels of independence unheard of in babies their age with CP.
Therapy takes place at home, using existing equipment and home set up. Our researchers found that most of a child’s skill development takes place during their normal daily routine and play, so it makes sense to optimise these opportunities.
Instead of watching the therapist teach their child skills in a clinic, and then try to replicate them at home, parents apply GAME techniques all throughout their child’s regular day.
Parents learn the skills at the same time as their child. They’re trained in how to analyse their child’s movements, and then how to come up with on-the-fly strategies to help their little ones – without taking over.
Charlotte’s mum, Melissa, explains how the GAME trial has worked for her family:
“Charlotte wants me to help her, but I give her the structure to do it herself. I don’t just do it for her.
She’s learning to pick things up with a pincer grip, so she can get things on her own.
We’re also working on being able to pull herself up to sit. That way she can have freedom, and independent opportunity for play.”
