Healthy Start to Life
Early experience and learning sets the foundations for optimising health outcomes
About this hub
The World Health Organisation recognises the importance of a healthy start to life to optimise a child's developmental potential. Interventions are needed to ensure that every infant, child and adolescent can develop to its full potential, and our School focuses on an interdisciplinary approach, including allied health and nursing, to support the individual along with their family and community.
Our School's researchers are conducting research to improve outcomes for infants, children and adolescents, along with their caregivers by optimising a healthy start to life. We recognise that the care and support that infants, children and young people, and their families receive early in life is critical for their long-term health and wellbeing, educational, social and economic outcomes as adults. Consistent with recommendations from the World Health Organisation, our research is focusing on supporting the child themselves, along with their family, community and health professionals to ensure they have the information, skills and services to optimise their development and reach their full potential.
A healthy start to life encompasses many areas of development, and our research includes, but is not limited to, neonatal care and outcomes, safety and quality of care, evidence-based care of the hospitalized child, motor, speech and language and cognitive development, the parent-infant relationship, peer relationships, physical activity and optimising participation in daily activities of living.
Meet our researchers in the healthy start to life hub
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Audiology and Speech Pathology
Dr Elaina Kefalianos
Course Coordinator, Senior LecturerEducation and Research
elaina.kefalianos@unimelb.edu.au -
Nursing
Prof Denise Harrison
Professor | Research areas include infant and child health, implementation science, families as partners in caredeniseh@unimelb.edu.auDr Suzanne Kapp
Senior Lecturer | Research areas include skin integrity, chronic wounds, patient engagement and self-treatmentsuzanne.kapp@unimelb.edu.au -
Optometry and Vision Sciences
Dr Bao Nguyen
Lecturer, optometrist and human visual neuroscientist | Research areas include understanding eye and brain changes with healthy and pathological ageing, childhood and adolescent development, vision anomalies in ophthalmic and neurological disorders.bnguyen@unimelb.edu.auMs Christine Nearchou
Senior Lecturer. Teaching specialist, Clinical leader of paediatrics, binocular vision | Research: paediatric eye health and vision, visual development, learning in children.nearchou@unimelb.edu.au
Janet Chan
Postdoctoral Researcher | Research areas include healthy ageing, migraine, magnetic resonance spectroscopy and visual snow.yu.chan@unimelb.edu.au
Anh Hoang
Resesarch Assistant | Research areas include retinal structure-function relationship in various preclinical models and ocular biomarkers for Parkinson and Alzheimers disease.anh.hoang@unimelb.edu.au
Darren Zhao
Postdoctoral Research Fellow | Research areas include the reversibility of retinal ganglion cells and the effects of brain pressure modification on the eye.da.zhao@unimelb.edu.au
Dr Ekaterina Levichkina
Research Fellow | Research areas include Neural mechanisms of visual attention and predictive coding; visual perception; sleep research.ele@unimelb.edu.auA/Prof Andrew Metha
Assoc. Professor | Research areas include cellular-resolution imaging of the retina to investigate the essential structure-function relationships required for vision and how this is supported by vascular and neural processes.ametha@unimelb.edu.au -
Physiotherapy
Dr Mark Merolli
Physiotherapist, Senior Lecturer, Research Fellow | Digital Technologiesmerollim@unimelb.edu.auProf Alicia Spittle
Associate Dean (Research) Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences | Her research interest include infant and child development, early intervention, parent well-being, consumer engagement and implementation scienceaspittle@unimelb.edu.au
Dr Amanda Kwong
Research Fellow | Research areas include early detection assessment and implementation of movement problems in high risk infantsamanda.kwong@unimelb.edu.au
Dr Abbey Eeles
Research Fellow | Research areas include the impact of developmental therapy and early intervention on brain development and rehabilitation in the newborn period and beyond, and the role parents play in delivering this interventionabbey.eeles@unimelb.edu.auDr Rachel Toovey
Lecturer | Research areas including paediatrics, disability and inclusive participation in physical activityr.toovey@unimelb.edu.auDr Tara Fitzgerald
Lecturer | Research interests include physical activity participation in early childhood, and long-term outcomes for infants born pretermtara.fitzgerald@unimelb.edu.auKate Cameron
Physiotherapist, PhD candidate | Research areas include outcomes of children born preterm and physical activity participationk.cameron@unimelb.edu.au
John Carey
Physiotherapist, Research Assistant & PhD Candidate | Research areas include child & youth disability, physical activity, participation, and community partnershipjohn.carey@unimelb.edu.au -
Social Work
Dr Lyndal Hickey
Research Fellow | Research areas include policy, program and practice implementation to improve the lives of people living with disability, and their families in their communitieshickeyl@unimelb.edu.auA/Prof Sarah Wise
Associate Professor | Research areas include Child Protection during the perinatal period, Out-of-Home Care and human service system governance and changesarah.wise@unimelb.edu.auDr Gemma McKibbin
Research fellow | Specialises in interviews with children and young people about sensitive issues like child sexual abuse and family violence. Interested in research collaborations that benefit the health and social lives of children and young people in Australia and across the globegemma.mckibbin@unimelb.edu.au