Participation and Environment Measure-Plus (PEM-Plus) Care Planning Intervention
Developmental DisabilityEarly Intervention (Education)The goal of the proposed research is to achieve a major advance in promoting effective and efficient delivery of pediatric rehabilitation services for young children with developmental disabilities and delays. The investigative team will examine the usability, feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effects of PEM+, an innovative web-based (mobile friendly) guide for care planning by parents of young children with developmental disabilities and delays. PEM+ is designed in partnership with parents and providers to support more collaborative and efficient clinical care planning with individual families who typically access pediatric occupational therapy services. Specifically, PEM+ enables parents to build on their baseline assessment of their child using the Young Children's Participation and Environment Measure (YC-PEM) to design specific solutions to their young child's participation-related problems. PEM+ affords parents the opportunity to do this in their own space and on their own schedule, as well as electronically share their proposed written solutions with their child's provider(s) and/or other important individuals in their young child's life.
Group Psychoeducational Program for Mothers of Children With High Functional Pervasive Developmental...
Pervasive Developmental DisorderThe purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of group psychoeducation for the psychological distress of mothers with the children of high-functioning pervasive developmental disorder and for their behavior based on disorder traits.
An Open-Label Study to Evaluate the Efficacy of High-Dose Gammaplex in Children on the Autism Spectrum...
AutismAutistic Disorder3 moreIf autism is the consequence of a chronic inflammatory process preventing the infant brain from forming the proper neural connections, then treatment that reduces inflammation might have a positive impact on autism. IGIV treatment has been known to suppress inflammation and has been used in the treatment of inflammatory conditions and autoimmune diseases.
Trial of Low-Dose Naltrexone for Children With Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD)
Pervasive Developmental DisorderThis study will examine the effects of low-dose naltrexone (LDN) on children with autistic spectrum disorders. The investigators hope to show a positive effect on social functioning and language.
Dance Training for Developmental Disabilities
Developmental Disabilitythe purpose of this current study is to examine the changes in postural stability in adult individuals with developmental disabilities following exposure to a college based integrative dance training course. Integrative dance may be defined as dance that encourages the participation of all individuals, regardless of ability, supporting and celebrating these differences as a community. It is hypothesized that a significantly reduced body sway will be observed in participants following a college based integrative dance training course. Furthermore, in participants that continue dancing in the program over multiple semesters, it is hypothesized that there will be an inverse relationship between body sway and dance participation over time (IE: As participants dance more, body sway will continue to decrease).
Assessing Suicide Risk in Adolescents With Developmental Delays
Child Development DisordersPervasiveBackground: - Currently, there is no standard method to study suicide risk in youth with developmental delays or intellectual disabilities (DD/ID). Youth with DD/ID are often excluded from studies that are used to develop these methods. As a result, most current suicide risk assessments have not been tested for use with people with DD/ID. Researchers want to develop an effective suicide risk screening tool for children and adolescents with DD/ID. Objectives: - To develop a suicide risk screening tool for young adults with DD/ID. Eligibility: Young adults between 12 and 21 years of age who have DD/ID and are in mental health counseling. Participants will be in counseling at Surrey Place Centre, a community health center in Toronto, Canada. Design: Participants will fill out questionnaires during a 1-hour meeting with a therapist. The questions will ask about mood and current feelings, including whether the participant has been thinking about or planning to hurt or kill him or herself now or in the past. Other questions will ask about participants' understanding of death in general. Parents of participants may also fill out a questionnaire. It will ask about how the participant has been feeling. It will also ask whether the parent has noticed any signs that suggest suicidal thoughts or actions, now and in the past. Treatment will not be provided as part of this protocol. However, participants can receive counseling through the regular Surrey Place Centre services.
Safety and Efficacy Study in the Treatment of Intestinal Problems Associated With Autism
AutismAutistic Disorder5 moreThe purpose of this study is to determine if human immunoglobulin given by mouth twice a day is effective in treating the persistent gastrointestinal (GI) problems such as diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain, and bloating, in children with autism.
Longitudinal and Biological Study of Childhood Disintegrative Disorder
Pervasive Child Development DisordersAutismOBJECTIVES: I. Compare the developmental course (language acquisition, diagnostic stability, predictors of outcome, and restricted interests and behaviors) of childhood disintegrative disorder versus autism and non-autistic developmental delays. II. Collect data on molecular genetics of proband and family members.
Effectiveness of the WHO Caregivers Skills Training Program
Autism Spectrum DisorderDevelopment Delay5 moreBackground: Increasing prevalence rates of developmental disorders (DDs) including Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and intellectual disability are a public health priority particularly in Low and Middle Income countries (LIMC) and are included in the World Health Organization (WHO) mhGAP program. However, existing mental health care facilities and resources are insufficient in most low resource settings to cater for this increasing demand. To address this situation, Caregiver Skills Training (CST) program for children with developmental disorders and delays has been developed by the WHO to bridge the treatment gap in low resource settings. Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the WHO CST program plus treatment as usual (TAU) vs. TAU to improve caregiver-child interaction in children with developmental disorders and delays, when implemented by non-specialist health care facilitators in a low-resource rural community settings of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Methods: A two arm, single blind individual randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be carried out with 160 caregiver-child dyads with development disorders and delays in community settings of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. 160 caregiver-child dyads will be individually randomized on 1:1 allocation ratio into intervention (n=80) and control (n=80) arms. Participants in the intervention arm will receive 3-hours group training sessions of WHO CST program once every week for 9 weeks and 3 individual home sessions delivered via non-specialist health care facilitator over a duration of 3-months. The primary outcome is improvement in play-based caregiver-child interaction at 9-months post-intervention. The secondary outcomes are improvement in routine home-based caregiver-child interaction, child's social communication skills, adaptive behavior, emotional and behavioral problems and parental health related quality of life. The data on health services utilization will also be collected at 9-months post-intervention. Qualitative process evaluation with a sub-sample of study participants and trainers will be undertaken following the RCT. The study will be completed within an estimated period of 11-months. Discussion: Outcomes of the study will be the evidence on the effectiveness of WHO CST program to improve caregiver child interaction and improvement in social communication skills, adaptive behaviors of children with developmental disorders and delays in the low resource setting of Pakistan.
Oral Health Education for Caregivers of Children With Disabilities
Developmental DisabilityConsidering the impact of caregivers' oral health knowledge, attitudes and practices on the oral health of their children; we introduced an educational program to the parents and caregivers of children with developmental disabilities about the oral healthcare of their developmentally disabled children to rise up with the oral health status of those children.