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Institute News

Centre of Research Excellence in Speech and Language Launch

The Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) in Speech and Language team were delighted to host their official launch in August. The event brought together local, interstate and international guests from a range of disciplines including speech pathology, paediatric neurology, neuroscience and genetics to facilitate an afternoon of stimulating presentations and networking opportunities. Professor Angela Morgan opened the afternoon providing an overview of the team’s work and journey towards the CRE to date and highlighted future research directions of the CRE, which aims to explain the genetic and neural bases of speech and language disorders. Dr Frederique Liegeois, cognitive neuroscientist from the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, made her first visit to Australia to deliver the keynote address on the neurobiology of inherited speech and language disorders. Dr Michael Hildebrand, molecular geneticist, then spoke on the approaches used to study the genetics of speech and language before Angela...
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Institute News

The kids are OK: Loving families make healthy, happy kids

At MCRI we want all children to thrive. We believe every child and adolescent deserves the best start, and the opportunity to live a healthy and fulfilled life. Our research improves the health of babies, children and adolescents now and into the future. Research tells us that children and adolescents raised in same-sex parented families do as well as other children across a range of health and wellbeing measures. The research also tells us that children and adolescents with same-sex parents are negatively impacted when their families experience homophobia or discrimination. We therefore encourage everyone to consider the best available research when weighing up the debate around marriage equality. MCRI believes in robust, evidence-based research. When it comes to the children of same-sex parented families, the evidence shows that the kids are OK. More information: Raising Children Network provides evidence based tips and tools for everyday parenting from pregnancy to...
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Research News

Genes not to blame for toothaches

Looks like Mother was right all along; a new study has revealed the condition of your teeth depends more on your diet and oral hygiene habits than on your genes.
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Research News

Trial of innovative app to screen for cerebral palsy

An app developed by the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Royal Women’s Hospital , and the University of Melbourne could revolutionise the way cerebral palsy is diagnosed and the timing of treatment. The screening app has been offered, as part of a trial, to all Victorian parents who gave birth to a extremely preterm baby in the year to April 2017. Very small, preterm babies are at higher risk of developing cerebral palsy. Currently the average age for diagnosis of cerebral palsy in babies is 19 months, but that is often much later than ideal for maximising the benefit of treatment. The simple app, called Baby Moves, allows parents to record their baby’s movements at home at three months of age, upload the video to a secure server and a trained assessor watches the video to screen the baby for cerebral palsy. Physiotherapist Assoc Prof Alicia Spittle from the Women’s, Murdoch...
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