For more information click here or go to our Help for Parents section/Buscot Parents NCT Drop-In

A very very big thank you to all the parents, caregivers and children who have participated so far in the ERIC Project! Currently (mid-April) our numbers stand at 100, and we are extremely grateful for all the support we have received.

‘ERIC’ stands for Early Report by Infant Caregivers. ERIC is a short interactive set of games and questions, for parents and other caregivers of children to be completed at home. It is designed for use with children aged 10 to 24 months who might be at risk for cognitive (thinking) delay because of low birth weight, prematurity, or difficulties at the time of the birth. ERIC is designed to be fun for both you and your child and doesn’t take long to complete.

Children’s performance on the ERIC is compared with their performance on a standard assessment of cognitive development, called the Bayley Scale. Participants visit us at Reading University for about an hour. Parents are with their child throughout and a researcher carries out similar activities with your child to those in the ERIC.

For parents who participate, we are able to give simple feedback about their child’s performance on the Bayley. If it is difficult for you to get to Reading University we are happy to pay for a taxi to collect you, or for us to visit you in your home. At the end of the study, we will know whether ERIC is a potential tool which clinicians can give to worried parents, or to anyone looking after an at-risk child. At the moment, results are very encouraging – ERIC could become a really useful tool throughout the NHS and if it does, BIBS will have been an important part of it.

To test ERIC, we rely on the support of parents and caregivers of children who come through the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust’s maternity unit, in particular, the Buscot Ward. We hope you will have received an invitation to participate in the ERIC Project, either whilst on the ward or through the post. We would love to hear from you if you think your child is eligible. At the end of the 3 year project we hope to have about 400 participants!

For more information or to contact us please phone or email:

• Graham Schafer: Director
  0118 378 6221 g.w.schafer@reading.ac.uk
• Liz Schofield/Lucia Genesoni: Researchers
  0118 378 5260 e.m.schofield@reading.ac.uk, l.genesoni@reading.ac.uk

Download the original report (Word Document)
Download the newest Newsletter here ERIC Newsletter Summer 2011