Active clinical trials for "Developmental Disabilities"

This study focuses on children entering kindergarten with co-occurring developmental disabilities and behavior problems, a population especially likely to have low levels of school readiness. Prior research has shown that children with developmental disabilities are at risk for academic difficulties. Behavioral and social problems are likely to interfere with school adjustment. The investigators hypothesize that children who receive the intervention will show better school readiness and school adjustment outcomes.

Relatively few health promotion and disease prevention programs have included or targeted people with disabilities, and even fewer have focused on individuals with intellectual disabilities. The long-term objectives of the Healthy Lifestyles for People with Intellectual Disabilities Study (HLID) are to increase the health of persons with intellectual disabilities by establishing the efficacy of a health promotion program and promoting its adoption. The HLID Study is based in the Center on Community Accessibility (CCA) at Oregon Health & Science University. The mission of CCA is to increase the health and health-related quality of life of persons with disabilities. A pilot study conducted by CCA has established the effectiveness of the Healthy Lifestyles (HL) intervention among a cross-disability population in increasing health behavior adoption. The specific aim of the HLID Study is to test the efficacy of the HL program specifically with adults with intellectual disabilities. The HLID Study uses a randomized control study design. The HL intervention will be administered to 75 adults and will compare results to those of an additional 75 adults who receive no intervention. Measurement will include anthropometric assessments to measure impacts on overweight and obesity, as well as self-report measures of healthy behaviors, health status, health care utilization, and secondary conditions. Results will be shared with research participants, presented through professional conferences and newsletters, and published in peer-reviewed journals with the assistance of community partners.

The proposed study will pilot the use of an adapted Game Squad intervention aimed at improving physical activity and other important health behaviors (nutrition, sleep hygiene, screen time habits) for children and adolescents receiving special education supports for behavioral health challenges, or who are served by the Boston Medical Center Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics (BMC-DBP) clinic.

Establishing good oral health-related habit is challenging among younger children, especially for preschool children with special needs, as they have physical, mental, sensory, behavioural, emotional, and chronic medical conditions that requires health care beyond the routines. Existing evidences showed that children with special needs have poorer oral health status and more challenging behaviours than their counterparts in main stream schools. Visual pedagogy, such as social stories, have been applied to teach a variety of skills or behaviours to individuals with special needs. They are short stories demonstrating the target skill or behaviour, and then the readers are expected to perform the target skill or behaviour following the demonstrations. Giving the evidence that children with special needs can understand complex situations and learn new practices by using those stories, we expect to apply a package of structured social stories to modify oral health-related behaviours (tooth brushing, healthy eating, dental visit), and thereby, improve oral health status among preschool children with special needs. Establishment of good oral-health related behaviours in early childhood will benefits children in their future life. Additionally, visual pedagogy-assisted oral health education is relatively easy and safe to implement. If proven effective, social story-based preventive care can be recommended to special children globally.

The project will investigate the effectiveness of a specialised musical-clinical approach used as an adjunct to an established non-musical intervention in the enhancement of interpersonal interaction. 6 school pupils with profound disability will be randomly allocated to experimental and control groups. The control group will receive only Intensive Interaction for 16 sessions. The experimental group will receive four sessions of Intensive Interaction, followed by twelve sessions of Intensive Interaction plus improvised music. Music therapists will follow a flexible manual written to ensure that their music supports the interaction between pupil and learning support assistant (LSA) without direct social interaction with either. Changes in capacity for interpersonal interaction will be assessed by a standardised assessment instrument, the Pre-Verbal Communication Schedule (PVCS), administered to both experimental and control groups before the 1st session and after the 16th session. There will also be a qualitative process study of the experimental group conducted by video observation by the researchers involved. The project is funded in equal shares by the Music Therapy Charity and Beacon Hill Academy.

This study was developed in order to assess the effects of risperidone (Risperdal) as compared with placebo on cognitive-motor performance (attention, memory, and hand steadiness) and body movements. We propose to study the effects of risperidone on cognitive-motor performance in children already medicated for severe conduct problems. We would also like to look at safety by assessing these children for dyskinetic movements. We already have a sizable cohort of children maintained on risperidone. Our hypotheses are as follows: Risperidone will have no adverse effects on cognitive-motor performance in children who have received maintenance therapy for 4 to 20 months. Children tested during placebo will show no more dyskinetic movements than during risperidone treatment (i.e., there will be no unmasking of tardive dyskinesia).

Visual development disorders are major public health problems among children especially in China. How to find an effective and economic way to manage the larger number of children in China remains exploring. The national basic public health services of China offer visual acuity screening for preschool children for free every year. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility, cost-effective and the influence factors of compliance of tertiary care for visual developmental disorders in pre-school children after screening, and whether this disease management model is more effective and superior than the current medical care in china.

A randomized double-blind placebo controlled intervention study with pregnant obese women (n=440) will be conducted. The intervention will involve consumption of fish oil and/or probiotic capsules from early pregnancy until 6 months after delivery. The aim of the study is firstly to investigate the effects of the supplements on the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus and obesity in the women and secondly to modify the risk markers of allergy and obesity in children of the women. Also the underlying metabolic mechanisms will be investigated. Follow up visits at child's age of 5 to 6 years will be conducted to evalute long-term effects on maternal and child health. The aim is to investigate the impact of dietary intervention, diet, maternal overweight/obesity and gestational diabetes status as well as gut microbiota and metabolism during pregnancy on maternal and child's health, allergy and child neuropsychological development.

This study will examine whether DMSA, an oral chelating agent that removes mercury and other metals from the body, is beneficial for children with autism. DMSA is commonly used to treat autism, although it has never been tested in a controlled study and there is no proof that it helps children with the disorder. Support for its use is based on single-case reports of benefits of chelation with DMSA. This study will help determine whether or not DMSA is useful for treating autism. Children between 4 and 10 years of age with autism spectrum disorder who weigh at least 33 pounds, who have detectable, but not toxic, levels of mercury or lead in the blood, and who have not previously received chelation therapy may be eligible for this study. Participants complete a medical history, behavioral and psychological assessment and physical examination. Blood, hair, urine and stool samples are collected for testing. Because DMSA can remove minerals the body needs, such as zinc and iron, as well as the toxic lead and mercury, participants take a daily multivitamin supplement starting 1 month before beginning chelation therapy and continuing for the duration of treatment. After 1 month of the supplementation regimen, the children are assigned to receive DMSA or placebo for 12 weeks, divided into six 2-week cycles. They take the assigned drug 3 times a day on days 1, 2 and 3 of each cycle and continue the multivitamin every day. The children are seen in the clinic immediately before and after the first, third and sixth cycles. At each checkup, the parent or guardian answers a set of questions about the child's autism symptoms, physical health and medication side effects. Blood, urine and stool samples are collected for laboratory testing. ...

Assess the prevalence of medico-psychological characteristics at the time of placement (M0), their appearance / disappearance and during the two years following placement (M12 and M24) by age group in children / adolescents in Child Protective Services and placed full-time in the structures of Seine-Maritime and Eure as well as in nursery in Le Havre or Rouen