Early family-centred support shows promising results for children with neuromotor disabilities, says University of Chichester study

Research at the University of Chichester in collaboration with Dame Vera Lynn Children’s Charity reveals encouraging signs that early, tailored family support can significantly improve outcomes for children under six with conditions such as cerebral palsy and genetic disorders.

Researchers at the University of Chichester say their work with Dame Vera Lynn Children’s Charity is adding weight to the argument that early, family-centred support can make a meaningful difference for children under 6 with neuromotor disabilities. The two-year Knowledge Transfer Partnership, backed by UK Research and Innovation, is designed to help the charity measure and strengthen the impact of its services for children with cerebral palsy, chromosome abnormalities and rare genetic conditions.

The partnership is still in its early stages, but the charity says the first findings are encouraging. Glenys Creese, the chief executive of Dame Vera Lynn Children’s Charity, said the organisation has long believed early intervention can change lives and wanted evidence to support that view. George Horne, the University of Chichester researcher working within the charity, said the initial work has echoed what he has seen firsthand: children making gains that exceed expectations, while parents benefit from practical and emotional support from staff and other families.

An early review of the academic literature found that holistic, individually tailored intervention tends to outperform single-discipline approaches, while also exposing a gap in long-term evidence from real-world settings. That wider context matters, because studies in related journals have also pointed to the value of family-centred care in rehabilitation and early neuromotor support, including approaches that bring caregivers into the intervention process rather than treating the child in isolation.

The charity’s own analysis, based on eight years of anonymised data from 111 children who completed its programme, showed large improvements in gross motor function, communication, social skills, self-care and emotional wellbeing. Those gains remained significant after accounting for age and development. Research into a decade of parent testimonies found a recurring pattern: families often arrived feeling isolated and under-supported, then reported renewed hope, stronger relationships and children achieving more than expected.

With the first phase of quantitative data now largely complete, the team is recruiting families for the next stage of the project. That phase will focus on the experiences of parents and carers trying to access early intervention through the NHS and wider public sector. The charity said it is particularly interested in hearing from families of children under 6 with gross motor learning impairments, including cerebral palsy, Angelman syndrome, Down syndrome and Rett syndrome.