The story so far

CALM I

The doors of the clinic opened in September 2014.

Children visited CALM for a 4-hour assessment of their attention, language, memory, executive function, speed of processing, phonological and academic achievements. Accompanying parents / carers complete a range of questionnaires relating to family history, physical and mental health, and behaviour.

A report was provided to the referring agent following the assessment, which summarised the child’s strengths and weaknesses. This could be shared with the family to inform ongoing support.

At the time of the clinic visit, children were asked if they would provide a saliva sample and if they would like to take part in the neuroimaging part of the project in a separate visit to the CBU MRI facility.

Recruitment for this phase closed in March 2018. We have the following data:

• imaging data n= 347
• cognitive and behavioural data n=805
• genetic data n= 572

This data will become available as an managed-access database by 2022 at the earliest.

From autumn 2018, typically developing (TD) children aged 5 to 18 years have been recruited through schools attended by children who have already been seen at the CALM clinic. Data collection is ongoing.  We currently have the following data:

• cognitive and behavioural data n= 180
• imaging data n= 89
• genetic data n= 53

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CALM II

In May 2019 we will begin a longitudinal follow-up of all children in the CALM I sample. This is the first longitudinal assessment of the cognitive underpinnings of learning difficulties.

In addition to repeating the assessments administered in CALM I, we will invite all children back for scanning and also assess parents’ cognitive abilities to explore familial links in cognitive performance.

We will contact all families who have previously attended the CALM clinic and provided consent to be contacted about future studies to invite them back for a repeat assessment approximately 3- 5 years after their first visit.

We will also provide a weblink for parents to optionally complete a set of cognitive tasks online at home in their own time.