Overview
There is a strong emphasis on documenting, researching and evaluating Let’s Grow Together activities and service design to inform best practice and policy.
This is achieved through our internal monitoring and evaluation processes as well as close working partnerships with UCC and other agencies.
Publications
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
Buckley L, Gibson L, Harford K, Cornally N, Curtin M. Community paediatric clinics and their role in supporting developmental outcomes and services for children living in disadvantaged communities. Journal of Child Health Care. 2022;0(0). doi:10.1177/13674935221146008
Buckley, L., Gibson, L., Harford, K., Cornally, N., Curtin, M. (2022) The KidScope Study: An Analysis of a Community Paediatric Clinic Set in a Disadvantaged Area of Ireland. The Boolean 2022 | Volume 6 | DOI:10.33178/boolean.2022.1.19
The Kidscope Study – The Boolean – Buckley et al. 2022
Buckley, L., Curtin, M., Cornally, N., Harford, K., Gibson, L. (2022) Exploring Undergraduate Medical Student Experiences of Training Within a Community‑Based Paediatric Clinic. Medical Science Educator 2022. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-022-01699-3
Medical student training in the community_Buckley et al. 2022
Martin, S., O’Hara, L., Curtin, M., Dennehy, J. & Let’s Grow
Together Infant Mental Health and Well-being Team (2022) Infant Mental Health Training for Early
Years Practitioners, Childhood Education, 98:3, 34-41, DOI: 10.1080/00094056.2022.2083389
Infant Mental Health Training for Early Years_Martin et al 2022
Buckley L, Gibson L, Cornally N, Harford K, Curtin M. (2021) The impact of community based paediatric clinics on the developmental outcomes of children living in disadvantaged communities: A Systematic Review Protocol. PROSPERO 2021 CRD42021243889 Available from: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42021243889
Martin S, Harford K, Buckley L. (2021) Child and adult perspectives on implementing a quality improvement strategy in ECEC settings. An Leanbh Óg, Vol 14, 2021.
Buckley, L., Martin, S., Curtin, M. (2020)
Martin, S. & Buckley, L. (2019).
Archives of Disease in Childhood, 104:3. A1-A428.
Buckley, L., Gibson, L., Curtin, M., Walsh, G., Maguire, C., Harford, K. (2019).
https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/104/Suppl_3/A65.1.full.pdf
Reports
COVID-19
The emergence of COVID-19 and the associated measures introduced to curb the spread of the virus had a significant impact on the lives of people in Ireland and across the world. While rates of serious illness in children and young people have been low, their lives have been significantly affected by restrictions imposed on society due to COVID-19.
Curtin, M., O’Shea, M and Hayes, C. (2021) Growing up during lockdown: The impact of Covid-19 on the children and families involved in Let’s Grow Together! Infant & Childhood Partnerships
Buckley, L. (2021) The Many Voices of Let’s Grow Together! Informing the Let’s Grow Together! Infant & Childhood Partnerships CLG Strategic Plan 2021-25
(Young Knocknaheeny ABC Programme: Cork, 2019).
Young Knocknaheeny. (2019).
(Young Knocknaheeny ABC Programme: Cork, 2019)
Martin, S. (2019)
(Young Knocknaheeny ABC Programme: Cork, 2018)
Buckley, L. & Curtin, M. (2018).
(Young Knocknaheeny ABC Programme: Cork, 2016)
Young Knocknaheeny, (2016).
Preparing for a Whole Community Prevention and Early Intervention Programme 2011-2015
(Young Knocknaheeny ABC Programme: Cork, 2016)
Young Knocknaheeny, (2016).
(Young Knocknaheeny ABC Programme: Cork, 2016)
Young Knocknaheeny, (2016).
Conference Presentations
Buckley L (2022) Public Health Nurse involvement in a multi-stakeholder community paediatric clinic meeting UN SDGs in Ireland. Sigma 6 Biennial European Regional Conference June 2022. Sigma Repository. http://hdl.handle.net/10755/22698
Public Health Nurses meeting Sustainable Development Goals Presentation
[ABSTRACT] Buckley L (2022) Public Health Nurse involvement in a multi-stakeholder community paediatric clinic meeting UN SDGs in Ireland. Sigma 6 Biennial European Regional Conference June 2022. Sigma Repository. http://hdl.handle.net/10755/22698
Buckley L, Gibson L, Cornally N, Harford K, Curtin M. (2022) The impact of community paediatric clinics on the developmental outcomes of children living in disadvantage.
9th Europaediatric Conference, Dublin, June 2019
Curtin, C., Buckley, L. (2019).
9th Europaediatric Conference, Dublin, June 2019
Buckley, L., Gibson, L., Curtin, M., Walsh, G., Maguire, C., Harford, K. (2019).
Buckley, L. and Curtin, M. 2018,
‘Learning Together Young Knocknaheeny Process Evaluation 2015 to 2017’, presented by Curtin, M
Russell, J., Martin, S., Buckley, L., 2018,
‘ Including Children’s Voices in a Multiple Stakeholder Study on a Community Wide Approach to Improving Quality in Early Years Settings’, presented by Russell, J and Martin, S.
Presented by C. Maguire, 16th World Association of Infant Mental Health World Congress, Rome, May, 2018.
Maguire, C., Curtin, M., Buckley, L., Harford, K. (2018).
Curtin, M., Maguire, C., Buckley, L., Harford, K. 2018,
‘Implementing a Standardised Model of Infant Mental Health Visiting in a Low-Income Irish Community’, presented by Curtin, M.
Russell, J. 2017
‘Addressing Quality in Childcare: A Case Study of A Community Wide Approach to Improve Outcomes for Children in a Disadvantaged Area’, presented by Russell, J
Curtin, M., Donald, B., Buckley, L., Harford, K. 2017,
‘Using a child-focused community profile as a catalyst for a multi-disciplinary child health partnership in a low-income Irish community’, presented by Curtin, M.
Conference Posters
Buckley L, Gibson L, Cornally N, Harford K, Curtin M. The impact of community-based paediatric clinics on the developmental outcomes of children living in disadvantaged communities. Poster presentation at ‘Take Heart’, Zero to Three Annual Conference, Oct 25-29 2021.
Martin, S. (2021) Supporting Relationships: Implementing Infant Mental Health training and capacity building for Early Years Practitioners
Walsh, G. and O’Sullivan, S (2021) “Celebrating our Profession: A Changing World of SLT”, Irish Association of Speech & Language Therapists (IASLT) Biennial Conference
- Grace and Sally presented a poster at the Irish Association of Speech & Language Therapists (IASLT) Biennial Conference “Celebrating our Profession: A Changing World of SLT” on 8th and 9th September 2021. The Conference took place online and provided a wonderful opportunity to connect with colleagues and to showcase our work in Let’s Grow Together. The title of the poster presentation was “A Population Level Study of the Language Profiles of Irish Children in Junior Infants in a Low Socio-Economic Area” and it was authored by Grace Walsh, Sally O’Sullivan & Katherine Harford (Let’s Grow Together! Infant and Childhood Partnerships CLG) Emma Hallahan, Dr. Margaret Curtin & Dr. Ciara O’Toole (UCC). The poster shared results of speech and language assessments carried out with children in Junior Infant between 2016-2019. The results suggest that Irish children living in a low socio-economic area are at an increased risk of experiencing language difficulties at school entry than those in higher socio-economic areas and support the need for prevention and promotion services embedded within communities to support speech, language, literacy and communication development as early as possible.
Buckley L, Walsh G, Maguire C, Gibson L, Curtin M. (2019) Enhancing services for vulnerable children and families through Public Health Nurses participation in a workforce capacity building initiative and interagency partnerships in a low-income Irish community. Poster presentation at Europaediatrics Annual Conference Dublin 2019.
Walsh, G., O’Sullivan, S., Maguire, C., Harford, K., Buckley, L., Curtin, M., 16th WAIMH World Congress: New Challenges for a 3rd millenium Infant Mental Health, Rome, Italy 26th to 30th May 2018
‘Babbling Babies: Moving from an Impairment Model towards Promotion and Prevention in the Pre-Birth to 3 Year Period of Development for Speech and Language Therapists in Ireland’, presented by Walsh, G
Emerging Research
Title: The KidScope Study: An analysis of a community-based paediatric development clinic set in a disadvantaged area of Ireland
Authors: Buckley L, Gibson L, Cornally N, Harford K, Curtin M
Description: This is a four-year PhD project conducted through University College Cork (UCC) the SPHeRE (Structured Population and Health-services Research Education) Programme. The research scholar is Lynn Buckley, Let’s Grow Together Programme Officer, and the project is supervised by Dr Margaret Curtin and Dr Nicola Cornally from the School of Nursing and Midwifery UCC, and Dr Louise Gibson, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health UCC and Consultant Paediatrician in Cork University Hospital.
KidScope is the only paediatric outreach clinic to offer free assessment, consultation, and onward referral of children within a highly vulnerable community. This study is the first opportunity to apply critical quantitative and qualitative lenses to the KidScope Clinic to understand its impact on child and family outcomes and practitioner service provision. The aim of the study is to deliver a clear, cohesive, and rigorous evaluation of KidScope in order to contribute to the evidence-base on best practice in addressing avoidable developmental delay in disadvantaged communities through early detection and timely referral to services.
Funders: Let’s Grow Together! Infant & Childhood Partnership CLG and the Irish Research Council Employment Based Postgraduate Programme (EBPPG/2019/197).
Duration: Sept 2019 – Sept 2023
Title: Measuring the efficacy of an early communication and literacy programme for infants: Babbling Babies
Authors: Walsh G, O’Sullivan S, Harte J, O’Toole C
Description: The aim of this study is to examine how the Let’s Grow Together Babbling Babies service can help promote and support early communication development for babies. Babbling Babies is offered to all parents/caregivers in the northwest area of Cork City when they attend their baby’s routine 9-11 month developmental check-up with their Public Health Nurse. This is an innovative service whereby all parents/caregivers are offered an opportunity to meet with a Speech and Language Therapist to discuss and model how they can interact with their baby to promote early language, literacy, and communication development. We work in partnership with the local Public Health Nursing Department to bring this service to families living in the area.
Dr Margaret Curtin (School of Nursing and Midwifery, UCC) and Dr Shirley Martin (School of Applied Social Studies & the Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century (ISS21), UCC) are supporting the research.
Funders: Dr Ciara O’ Toole (Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, UCC) has been awarded an Irish Research Council New Foundations grant to see how our Babbling Babies service can help promote and support early communication development for babies.
Duration: Jan 2022 –
Title: Exploring the impact of Covid-19 on Junior Infant’s pupils
Authors: Buckley L, Curtin M, Martin S, O’Toole C, Harford K, Hegarty E.
Description: Let’s Grow Together are conducting research in one local primary school on the impact of Covid-19 on Junior Infants’ pupils. As part of this, we want to capture teachers’ perspectives of educating Junior Infants pupils during the pandemic. We also want to know more about children’s social and emotional readiness and speech and language abilities. The main aim of the study is to explore the impact of Covid-19 on children living with disadvantage who commenced formal education, Junior Infants, more than one year after the start of the pandemic in September 2021.
Funders: Let’s Grow Together! Infant & Childhood Partnership CLG
Duration: Jan 2022 – Autumn 2022
Research Partners
Current Research Partners:
Dr. Shirley Martin
Lecturer at the School of Applied Social Studies UCC
Dr Martin's main research interest is in the well-being of children and the focus of her research relates to key areas in children's' lives such as early years care and education, educational disadvantage and partnership with parents in educational settings. She has conducted a number of research projects in the area of child and youth participation and developed a number of youth-led research projects.
Dr. Ciara O'Toole
Lecturer in Speech and Language Therapy in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences UCC
Dr. O'Toole is a speech and language therapist and her research areas include early language development in bilingual and clinical populations. She is interested in the impact that interventions have on the outcomes for children and their families and how to improve the evidence base for communication interventions.
Dr. Margaret Curtin
lecturer on the Integrated Children's and General Nursing programme in the School of Nursing and Midwifery UCC
Dr. Curtin's research interests include early childhood development; childhood poverty and health; community-based approaches to addressing child health inequalities; integrated child health care and child public health
