Meredith Smith

Research Interests

Child and Adolescent Health Neuroscience, Behaviour and Brain Health Brain injury Neurology and Neuromuscular Diseases Orthopaedics Paediatrics Pain Physiotherapy Rehabilitation

Ms Meredith Smith

Lecturer

School of Allied Health and Human Performance

College of Health

Meredith Smith is a Lecturer in Physiotherapy within the School of Allied Health Science and Practice. She is a clinical paediatric physiotherapist, with expertise in paediatric rehabilitation. Meredith's PhD focused on tailoring chronic pain assessment to children and young people with cerebral palsy, in which she led the development of two new pain assessment tools: The Pain Interference Questionnaire for Cerebral Palsy (PIQ-CP) and the Fear of Pain Questionnaire Adapted for Cerebral Palsy (FOPQ-CP). Both tools are developed to be accessible to people with diverse cognitive, communication and movement abilities, and are freely available through the Oceania Academy of Cerebral Palsy and other Childhood-Onset Disabilities. Meredith is also titled APA Paediatric Physiotherapist and a committee member for the APA Paediatric special interest group. Meredith also continues to work clinically at Novita and the Women's and Children's Hospital.

Date Position Institution name
2021 - ongoing Lecturer- Physiotherapy University of Adelaide

Date Institution name Country Title
2025 University of Adelaide Australia Doctor of Philosophy
University of South Australia Australia Bachelor of Physiotherapy
Monash University Australia Master of Advanced Paediatric Physiotherapy Practice

Date Title Institution name Country
2021 Paediatric Physiotherapist Australian Physiotherapy Association Australia

Year Citation
2025 Smith, N. L., Gibson, N., Bear, N., Thornton, A. L., Imms, C., Smith, M. G., & Harvey, A. R. (2025). Measurement properties and feasibility of chronic pain assessment tools for use with children and young people with cerebral palsy. Disability and Rehabilitation, 47(4), 840-854.
DOI Scopus3 WoS4 Europe PMC3
2025 Smith, M. G., Gibson, R. J., Schibani, M., Russo, R. N., Thirumanickam, A., & Harvey, A. R. (2025). The comprehensibility and feasibility of the modified brief pain inventory and fear of pain questionnaire adapted for children and young people with cerebral palsy.. Qual Life Res, 34(8), 2377-2392.
DOI Scopus2 WoS2 Europe PMC2
2025 Smith, M. G., Gibson, R. J., Russo, R. N., & Harvey, A. R. (2025). Adapting two pain assessment tools for young people with cerebral palsy: a multi-stakeholder consensus study.. Pain Rep, 10(4), e1304.
DOI Scopus2 WoS2 Europe PMC2
2025 Smith, M. G., Gibson, R. J., Russo, R. N., Smith, N., & Harvey, A. R. (2025). Structural validity of the Pain Interference Questionnaire and Fear of Pain Questionnaire for children and young people with cerebral palsy.. Dev Med Child Neurol, 12 pages.
DOI
2024 Harvey, A., Smith, N., Smith, M., Ostojic, K., & Berryman, C. (2024). Chronic pain in children and young people with cerebral palsy: a narrative review of challenges, advances, and future directions. BMC Medicine, 22(1), 238-1-238-9.
DOI Scopus9 WoS8 Europe PMC7
2024 AusACPDM 2024 Abstracts (2024). Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 66(S3), 5-99.
DOI
2024 Smith, M. G., Gibson, R. J., Russo, R. N., Karanicolas, S., & Harvey, A. R. (2024). Examining tools for assessing the impact of chronic pain on emotional functioning in children and young people with cerebral palsy: stakeholder preference and recommendations for modification. Quality of Life Research, 33(8), 2247-2259.
DOI Scopus4 WoS3 Europe PMC3
2023 Smith, N. L., Smith, M. G., Gibson, N., Imms, C., Thornton, A. L., & Harvey, A. R. (2023). Pain coping tools for children and young adults with a neurodevelopmental disability: A systematic review of measurement properties. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 65(3), 318-328.
DOI Scopus8 WoS7 Europe PMC8
2023 Smith, M. G., Farrar, L. C., Gibson, R. J., Russo, R. N., & Harvey, A. R. (2023). Chronic pain interference assessment tools for children and adults who are unable to self‐report: A systematic review of psychometric properties. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 65(8), 1029-1042.
DOI Scopus11 WoS10 Europe PMC9
2023 30th Annual Conference of the International Society for Quality of Life Research. (2023). Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation, 32(Suppl 2), 23-220.
DOI Europe PMC1
2022 Smith, M. G., & Patritti, B. L. (2022). Minimal Clinically Important Difference of the Gait Assessment and Intervention Tool for Adults with Stroke. Gait & Posture, 91, 212-215.
DOI Scopus4 WoS5 Europe PMC7
Date Project/ No. Investigators Funding Body Amount
2026-2027 PainED-CP: Co-Creating an Innovative Pain Education Intervention for Children with Cerebral Palsy Chief Investigators: A/Prof Adrienne Harvey, A/Prof Giuliana Antolovich, Dr Carolyn Berryman, Dr Simon Garbellini, Miss Georgina Henry, Dr Ingrid Honan, Dr Katarina Ostojic, Dr Simon Paget, Dr Nicole Pope, Dr Meredith Smith, Dr Nadine Smith, Dr Abirami Thirumanickam Medical Research Future Fund $1M
2024-2025 Innovative Approaches to Assessing the Impact of Pain in Youth with
Cerebral Palsy who have Diverse Cognitive and Communication Abilities

Chief Investigator: Dr Meredith Smith

Associate Investigators: A/Prof Adrienne Harvey, Prof Rachel Gibson, Dr Nadine Smith, A/Prof Ray Russo

 Women's and Children's Health Network Spark Research Seed Funding / The Hospital Research Foundation $49000
2025 Discovering and evaluating pain education resources for children with Cerebral Palsy

Chief Investigator: Dr Meredith Smith

Associate Investigators: A/Prof Adrienne Harvey, Dr Nadine Smith, Ms Georgina Henry, Dr Katarina Ostojic, Dr Ingrid Honan

 Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences Early Grant Development Award
University of Adelaide		 $19900
2024 Evaluating the impact of chronic pain across the physical, communication and cognitive spectrum of children and young people with cerebral palsy

Chief Investigator: Dr Meredith Smith

Associate Investigators: A/Prof Ray Russo, A/Prof Adrienne Harvey, Prof Rachel Gibson

 Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences Early Grant Development Award
University of Adelaide		 $19915
2023 Modifying and testing chronic pain assessment tools for children and young people with cerebral palsy

Chief Investigator: Dr Meredith Smith

Associate Investigators: A/Prof Adrienne Harvey, A/Prof Ray Russo, Prof Rachel Gibson

 School of Allied Health Science and Practice Research Development Support Grant
University of Adelaide		 $14346

 

 

 

 

Course development:

Physiotherapy Across the Lifespan (2022)

Paediatric and Women's Health Physiotherapy (2023)

Person Centred Physiotherapy Practice (2023)

 

Teaching:

  • Paediatric and Women's Health Physiotherapy (2023, 2024, 2025)
  • Clinical Biomechanics (2022)
  • Person Centred Physiotherapy Practice (2023, 2024)
  • Physiotherapy Across the Lifespan (2022, 2023, 2024, 2025)
  • Physiotherapy Exercise Prescription & Physical Activity (2022)
  • Foundations of Health and Wellbeing (2021)
  • Evidence Based Practice 1 (2021, 2022)

Course Coordination

Physiotherapy Across the Lifespan (2022, 2023, 2024, 2025)

Person Centred Physiotherapy Practice (2023, 2024)

Date Role Research Topic Location Program Supervision Type Student Load Student Name
2025 - ongoing Principal Supervisor Movement interventions, and accessibility considerations in children and adolescents with chronic pain: a scoping review University of Adelaide Bachelor of Physiotherapy (Honours) Honours Full Time Ms Genevieve Nixon
2023 - 2024 Principal Supervisor Pain Passport for Children and Young People with Cerebral Palsy and Chronic Pain University of Adelaide Bachelor of Physiotherapy (Honours) Honours Full Time Ms Christine Drew

Date Role Committee Institution Country
2021 - ongoing Member Australian Physiotherapy Association - Paediatric Special Interest Group Australian Physiotherapy Association Australia

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