Infant Monitor of vocal Production (IMP)

Dr Robyn Cantle Moore

"Early and effective assessment of children's developmental progress is imperative in order to ensure that all of the interventions being pursued are actually achieving the desired and expected outcomes. The benefits of earlier intervention may be squandered if progress is assumed and alternative interventions are not considered until lack of progress is identified at a much later time through standardized assessments of linguistic development.

Dr Cantle Moore's work in developing this prototype of the Infant Monitor of vocal Production (IMP) represents an important contribution to the field of early intervention for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. The development phase now permits the distribution of this working prototype and training package for the use of the instrument. By engaging in the training and agreeing to become a user of the prototype you will be contributing to the ongoing development of the instrument, as well as sharing in the benefits of using this new approach to monitoring the early vocal productions of your own clients."

- Professor Greg Leigh, PhD, FACE
Chair, Australasian Newborn Hearing Screening Committee

Online training material is available to interested parties. You may register on http://www.ridbcrenwickcentre.com/imp/ .

The Australian Childhood Vision Impairment Register (ACVIR)

Sue Silveira

The Australian Childhood Vision Impairment Register is sponsored by the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, in partnership with Guide Dogs, Vision Australia, other low vision service providers, children with vision impairment and their families. The Register is the first of its kind in Australia, and is capturing uniquely Australian data which will be used to improve services for children with vision impairment. The data is also available to researchers who work in the area of eye disease and disorders of vision.

Families are warmly invited to register their children. Our age range is from 0-18 years, with any eye condition that causes vision impairment. Families can access our website at: http://www.ridbc.org.au/renwick/research/ozviskids.asp. The criteria for being included on the Register are available on the website, and if you are unsure, you can email the Register staff, who will help out. The latest Register newsletter is also available. We are currently developing a website which will give families and the public access to useful resources on vision impairment. The website will also give our registered families access to online parent and kids forums, where people can meet, chat, share ideas and support one another.

We hope you and your child will consider joining the Australian Childhood Vision Impairment Register.

Sue Silveira
Research Fellow
RIDBC Renwick Centre

More details on ACVIR...