About the study
Participation in the research project involves children who meet the criteria for participating in the clinical treatment programme being referred by their local habilitation service to one of four hospitals (one in each health region), which will be responsible for implementing the treatment programme. The four hospitals are Sørlandet Hospital in Kristiansand (South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority), Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen (Western Norway Regional Health Authority), St. Olav’s Hospital in Trondheim (Central Norway Regional Health Authority), and the University Hospital of North Norway (UNN) in Tromsø (Northern Norway Regional Health Authority). The child will be assessed by the local habilitation service before, during, and after participation in the research project, which runs for 2 years. By drawing lots, the children will be divided into two groups: half will begin the intensive part of the programme, which lasts one year, and will then receive follow-up through regular habilitation services. The other half will continue with regular habilitation services and begin the intensive part after one year. This means that all children who wish to participate in the project will complete the programme over two years.
The intensive part of the treatment programme consists of a training programme that has been offered for several years as a clinical service at the Regional Centre for Intensive Child Habilitation (RIB) at Sørlandet Hospital in Kristiansand. What is new now is that this programme will also be offered as a clinical service at the three other treatment sites mentioned above. The intensive programme lasts approximately one year and consists of three 2-week group sessions involving intensive habilitation and training. The groups consist of 3–5 families/children who stay at the relevant hospitals. Between sessions (at intervals of 3–5 months), the child will follow an individualised programme and train daily either at home or at kindergarten. Daily training will last approximately 1 hour, 5 days a week during the “home periods” and approximately 4 hours a day during the group sessions. During the group sessions, various professionals—physiotherapists, special education teachers, occupational therapists, and possibly psychologists—will organise the training in collaboration with the parents. The parents will receive instruction and guidance so that they can lead the home training, possibly together with local professionals in primary services if the training is to take place at kindergarten. The parents will also receive a separate follow-up programme focusing on coping with their own situation and stress-reduction measures. To evaluate the effect and value of such an intensive programme, standardised assessments of the child will be carried out, and questionnaires will be distributed for completion before, during, and after participation in the project. The assessments of the child, which will last approximately 1 hour, will be carried out by an experienced physiotherapist who is not involved in the child’s training or follow-up.
The benefit of this study is that we will gain new knowledge about whether participation in an intensive habilitation programme has a greater positive effect on the child’s everyday functioning, both motor and social, than the follow-up and treatment normally provided to the child. We also want to find out whether participation in such a programme can have beneficial effects on parenting by helping parents feel more capable, less stressed, and more optimistic after taking part in the programme. There is no research-based knowledge in Norway about the effects of participating in such an intensive programme. Children who take part in the study will be selected at random either to begin the intensive part of the programme or to continue with their regular habilitation follow-up for one year before beginning the intensive part in year 2. This may be a disadvantage for those who would like to start the intensive part sooner. No other disadvantages of participating in the project are apparent, apart from the fact that it is time-consuming and requires motivated parents.
Scientific title
PIH Multi - Intensive training of children with early brain injury - a national, multicentre effectiveness study
Read more about the study
Project page in the National Research Information Repository
Information about participation
The study has ended