As more families join the ORIGINS Project community and our first cohort of babies become toddlers, the project is entering a new phase.
Following the one-year appointments, which many ORIGINS families would have already attended, the next face-to-face touchpoint will be when the children of ORIGINS Project participants turn three years old.
At the commencement of the project, these appointments were originally scheduled to take place at two and a half years old, which may still appear on any printed information you have.
The ORIGINS team has decided to wait until your child is closer to three years old to hold this important appointment. This is because the visit will include a number of measures of health and development that the researchers believe will be more reliably assessed if your child is a little older.
It is also important to ensure that all clinical feedback provided to parents is as useful to them as possible and once again, this information is more accurately reflective of development when the child is slightly older.
In addition to completing our online questionnaires prior, participants will be invited to bring their three-year-old child for a clinic visit with a paediatrician and ORIGINS Project team members at Joondalup Health Campus. The clinic visit/paediatric check includes a number of measures of health and development of the child and the parents, including;
- Body measurements
- electronic screen use
- connectedness to nature
- measurement of hope and stress factors
- early childhood behaviour
- medical history
- access to community health services
- physical activity levels
- allergy testing
- respiratory outcomes, including asthma
- blood and hair samples
- growth and development assessment.
Participants will also be asked to attend an appointment at Edith Cowan University in Joondalup, at least two weeks prior to the appointment at Joondalup Health Campus, where they will conduct a BOD POD assessment. The BOD POD is a piece of equipment that measures body composition. It is a larger version of the PEA POD that was used as part of the assessment your ORIGINS child would have had after birth. It is non-invasive, with the child sitting comfortably in a chamber, and a full test only takes around 10 minutes, though you will need to allow one hour for this appointment.
Read more about what will take place at each touchpoint.
Please note: If you are involved in any of the ORIGINS sub-projects, you may also have additional appointments, questionnaires or touchpoints to those outlined above.