Dr Christa Lam-Cassettari
Area of Focus
Biography
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.
As Adjunct Research Fellow with the Babylab, she is also part of the team that developed the Young Well Beings short course. The Young Well Beings short course for young mums, funded by the NSW government ,was a co-design consumer and community involvement project harnessing co-design methods to ensure the end product was developed collaboratively by academic mothers and young mothers. This free micro credential is provided via WesternX (Western Sydney University) to build capacity and support mental health and wellbeing in young mothers and stakeholders who support young mothers.
“Taking good care of our kids despite life's challenges goes better when we know how to also take care of ourselves, and have people we trust who will support us when we need extra help. Like us, you already have strengths and skills for being a young mum. This course can help you build on them and feel stronger for the road ahead.” Access the course via Young Well Beings Western Sydney University. The course was built for young mothers and anyone that supports young mothers e.g. early childhood educators, researchers, allied health professionals, extended families of young mothers.
Research Interests
- 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
- The role of family centred early interventions in improving child outcomes.
Qualifications and Honours
- PhD, Developmental Psychology, MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University
- B. Psych (Hons), Western Sydney University
