Senior Research Associate

Dr Christa Lam-Cassettari

B. Psych (Hons). PhD, Developmental Psychology

Medicine & Health
School of Clinical Medicine

Christa Lam-Cassettari is a Senior Research Associate in the School of Psychiatry, UNSW, Academic Unit of Child Psychiatry South West Sydney (AUCS), and Clinical Trial Coordinator for an NHMRC funded partnerships project awarded to Professor Valsamma Eapen and colleagues entitled Watch Me Grow Integrated Approach – WMG-I: Changing practice to improve universal child health and developmental surveillance in the primary care setting. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and economic cost of the Watch Me Grow – Integrated (WMG-I) intervention and to explore stakeholder and community requirements of child developmental checks in the preschool years.  
 
Previous roles include a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Nottingham/NIHR Biomedical Research Unit conducting a Phase 1 Randomised Control Trial investigating the effect of a video-feedback intervention on parent–child communication in the context of congenital child hearing loss; a Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation funded Research Fellowship at Western Sydney University, The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development BabyLab examining the relationship between vocal emotion in parents' infant-directed speech and early word learning in Sweden and Australia. Christa was the interim Academic Leader BabyLab 2018-2020. Research interests include: quantitative and qualitative differences in infant-directed speech (IDS) input and the role of IDS in supporting early language, emotional availability and social-emotional development in children from 0-5 years of age; similarities and differences in emotional expression and parent-child interactions with mothers and fathers; the effect of postnatal depression on parent-child communication; and the role of family centred early interventions in improving child outcomes. Lam-Cassettari obtained her PhD examining the influence of infant hearing loss on mother-infant interaction: Implications for infant-directed speech, infant responsiveness and vocabulary development. She holds an Adjunct Fellowship at The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development. 

  • Book Chapters | 2014
    2014, 'Making a Complex Family Centred Intervention–Based Research Fully Inclusive and Data Driven: An Exploratory Study Using Single Cases', in SAGE Research Methods Cases, SAGE Publications, Ltd., http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/978144627305013512764
  • Journal articles | 2022
    2022, 'A short-form version of the Australian English Communicative Development Inventory', International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 24, pp. 341 - 351, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2021.1981446
    Journal articles | 2022
    2022, 'Parental experience of an early developmental surveillance programme for autism within Australian general practice: A qualitative study', BMJ Open, 12, pp. 1 - 12, http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064375
    Journal articles | 2022
    2022, 'Predicting Mental Health Status in Remote and Rural Farming Communities: Computational Analysis of Text-Based Counseling', JMIR Formative Research, 6, pp. e33036, http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/33036
    Journal articles | 2022
    2022, 'Suitability of vocabulary assessments: Comparing child scores and parent perspectives on communicative inventories for Aboriginal families in Western Sydney', International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 24, pp. 271 - 282, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2022.2045357
    Journal articles | 2022
    2022, 'Watch me grow integrated (WMG-I): protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial of a web-based surveillance approach for developmental screening in primary care settings', BMJ Open, 12, pp. e065823, http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-065823
    Journal articles | 2021
    2021, 'Babies detect when the timing is right: Evidence from event-related potentials to a contingent mother-infant conversation', Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 48, pp. 100923 - 100923, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2021.100923
    Journal articles | 2021
    2021, 'Co-design of a neurodevelopment assessment scale: A study protocol', International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18, http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182312837
    Journal articles | 2021
    2021, 'Suitability of text-based communications for the delivery of psychological therapeutic services to rural and remote communities: Scoping review', JMIR Mental Health, 8, http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/19478
    Journal articles | 2021
    2021, '“Watch Me Grow- Electronic (WMG-E)” surveillance approach to identify and address child development, parental mental health, and psychosocial needs: study protocol', BMC Health Services Research, 21, http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-021-07243-0
    Journal articles | 2020
    2020, 'Communication Skills and Communicative Autonomy of Prelinguistic Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children: Application of a Video Feedback Intervention', FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY, 11, http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01983
    Journal articles | 2020
    2020, 'Effect of maternal depression on infant-directed speech to prelinguistic infants: Implications for language development', PLoS ONE, 15, pp. e0236787, http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236787
    Journal articles | 2019
    2019, 'Intact goal-directed control in treatment-seeking drug users indexed by outcome-devaluation and Pavlovian to instrumental transfer: critique of habit theory', European Journal of Neuroscience, 50, pp. 2513 - 2525, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ejn.13961
    Journal articles | 2014
    2014, 'Enhancing Parent-Child Communication and Parental Self-Esteem With a Video-Feedback Intervention: Outcomes With Prelingual Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children', Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 20, pp. 266 - 274, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/deafed/env008
    Journal articles | 2013
    2013, 'Video feedback intervention: A case series in the context of childhood hearing impairment', International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 48, pp. 666 - 678, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12039
    Journal articles | 2012
    2012, 'Mommy, speak clearly: Induced hearing loss shapes vowel hyperarticulation', Developmental Science, 15, pp. 212 - 221, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2011.01118.x
    Journal articles | 2012
    2012, 'Thin slice sampling of video footage for mother/child interaction: Application to single cases', Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 34, pp. 351 - 360, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10862-012-9282-9
    Journal articles | 2011
    2011, 'C066 The early vocal development of children with cochlear implants during dyadic interaction with their mothers', International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 75, pp. 45 - 45, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0165-5876(11)70234-8
    Journal articles | 2011
    2011, 'E066 Enhancing maternal contingency using a video based rehabilitation with children with cochlear implants', International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 75, pp. 73 - 73, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0165-5876(11)70374-3
    Journal articles | 2010
    2010, 'Maternal interactions with a hearing and hearing-impaired twin: Similarities and differences in speech input, interaction quality, and word production', Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 53, pp. 543 - 555, http://dx.doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2010/09-0126)
    Journal articles | 2009
    2009, 'Age-specific preferences for infant-directed affective intent', Infancy, 14, pp. 77 - 100, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15250000802569777
  • Preprints | 2021
    2021, Predicting Mental Health Status in Remote and Rural Farming Communities: Computational Analysis of Text-Based Counseling (Preprint), , http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/preprints.33036
    Preprints | 2020
    2020, Suitability of Text-Based Communications for the Delivery of Psychological Therapeutic Services to Rural and Remote Communities: Scoping Review (Preprint), , http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/preprints.19478
    Conference Papers | 2008
    2008, '"Your baby can't hear you": How mothers talk to infants with simulated hearing loss', in Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, INTERSPEECH, ISCA-INT SPEECH COMMUNICATION ASSOC, Brisbane, AUSTRALIA, pp. 1971, presented at 9th Annual Conference of the International-Speech-Communication-Association (INTERSPEECH 2008), Brisbane, AUSTRALIA, 22 September 2008 - 26 September 2008, https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000277026101065&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=891bb5ab6ba270e68a29b250adbe88d1