Erika Zettby

I am a licensed psychologist and postdoctoral researcher in pediatric neurocognition, focusing on extremely preterm infants. Affiliated to research at KI KBH, Ulrika Ådén's research group saving the brain in critically ill neonates. I hold a postdoctoral position at Linköping University, Young survivor unit. 

My dissertation in Special Education was an RCT concerning a multidisciplinary early intervention including 130 recruited infants born extremely preterm and their parents. Children born before 28 gestational weeks may spend three months in the hospital before discharge. The days in the neonatal intensive care unit may be experienced as intense by the parents. However, many families describe challenges during the first months back home post-discharege as well, with contious worry for their child's development, changed family dynamics and parental loneliness (see my study here).

Through the Prematurförbundet family association, we know that many families feel alone and uncertain post discharge. In order to support parents and children in the discharge process, a multiprofessional research group created, implemnted and evaluated an early intervention program called the Stockholm Preterm Interaction-Based Intervention (SPIBI). SPIBI included ten home visits during the first year at home, focusing on positive parent-child interaction with the aim of promoting the child's long-term development. The research protocol is published here and the primary outcome measure here.

As part of my postdoctoral position, I am working on a project to replicate an early intervention program with the aim of promoting child-parent interaction by strengthening parents' sensitivity to their child's early sociocommunicative behaviours (the SIV-SIB study). I am also working on a project to strengthen teachers' knowledge of the special needs of their prematurely born students may have.

At KI I am performing the Swedish validation of the PARCA-CAT questionnaire in an extreme preterm 5.5-year old cohort in the regions of Stockholm and Östergötland (Linköping). The parental questionnaires of their child's cognitive ability is compared to a golden standard test of child cognition. The study is a part of the IMPREVE PRETERM consortium, and coordinated through University of Leicester. 

I am teaching at Linköping University and Karolinska institutet, previously at Stockholm university. I have over 500 h of teaching, mainly from the psychology, nursing, teacher training, speech-language pathology, and medical degree programs.