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Dr Christine O'Farrelly

Christine is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Senior Research Associate at PEDAL. She's developing ways to widen access to early, effective support for families to help babies and toddlers enjoy healthy and happy lives.

I’m a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Senior Research Associate at PEDAL. I currently work as Principal Investigator and Co-Chief Investigator across various projects in the Centre that aim to support children, families, and communities in the earliest years of children’s life.

My research focuses on developing and evaluating early childhood programmes to promote children’s early development and caregivers’ experiences of parenting. I am committed to bringing children’s own perspectives into our work by involving them in all stages of our research. I enjoy working with and supporting vibrant and inclusive teams, by supervising research assistants and associates, and Masters and PhD students.

Before joining PEDAL, I worked in the Centre for Mental Health at Imperial College London as Trial Manager on the Healthy Start, Happy Start study. I also worked at the Geary Institute for Public Policy, University College Dublin on the Preparing for Life evaluation as the project coordinator for the Day in a Life of Preparing for Life ParentChildren’s Thoughts about School, and Play to Learn studies.

Current projects

Helping little minds thrive

I'm Principal Investigator of this UKRI-funded project. We're working to widen access to effective supports for families, to help babies and toddlers have the best start in life.

Playtime with Books

I'm Co-Chief Investigator on this Nuffield-funded project. We are developing a virtual programme that supports parents and young children to share books together

Healthy Start, Happy Start

I'm Co-Chief Investigator of this NIHR-funded study. We're following up 300 families who took part in a parenting programme when their children were 1-2 years old.

PlayBack programme

I led the PlayBack study to adapt a play-based programme to support the child-teacher relationship.

Find out more about my work

Supporting child development through a video-led parenting programme

The Healthy Start, Happy Start study is a large-scale randomised controlled trial testing if a brief, home-based, video-feedback for families (called VIPP-SD) could help reduce children’s challenging behaviour. Read more about our findings from the study so far:

Bringing children's voices into research and programme development

I’m committed to bringing young children’s own perspectives into places where they are rarely heard. I led the Children’s Thoughts about School Study to understand the experiences of 4- and 5-year-olds transitioning to school in an area facing socioeconomic disadvantage in Dublin, Ireland.

Developing programmes to support families in the earliest years

I’m committed to better understanding how we can widen access to early, effective support for families in the earliest years of their children’s lives. A key way to do this is to develop intervention programmes that help to support parents in bonding with their little ones, responding to their children’s behaviour, and improving parents’ own wellbeing. Read more about research I’ve worked on in this area:

Understanding the role of play in children's lives and learning

We are focused on better understanding the role of play in children’s lives when they are at home, in school, and in hospital. Better understanding the role of play in children’s lives can help inform how we develop supports for families and communities.

Learning more about transitions within early childhood education settings

My PhD research focused on better understanding children’s and practitioners’ experiences when transitioning within early childhood care and education settings.

  • O’Farrelly, C. & Hennessy, E. (2014). Watching transitions unfold: A mixed-method study of transitions within early childhood care and education settings. Early Years, 329-347. doi: 10.1080/09575146.2014.968838
  • O’Farrelly, C. & Hennessy, E. (2013). Understanding transitions within early childhood care and education settings: The perspectives of professionals. International Journal of Transitions in Childhood,