Active clinical trials for "Learning Disabilities"

Teachers are increasingly faced with classrooms of students whose needs require support far beyond what traditional teacher-training programs prepare educators to provide. The presence of students with greater challenges in classrooms is due in part to the move to a full inclusion model of education and also to the rising epidemic of mental health disorders in youth. Mental health problems affect up to one million Canadian youth and their families. However, few of these individuals (~20%) receive the support they need (Kirby, 2013; Kutcher & McLuckie, 2013). The Teacher Help research team along with industry partner, Velsoft, and key knowledge user, Nova Scotia Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, will address this barrier by developing, evaluating, and commercializing a sustainable eHealth resource for teachers. Teacher Help is an online program that assists teachers in providing evidence-based interventions to students in grades 1-12 with mental health disorders in the classroom. The program allows teachers in a typical classroom setting to access information and expert-coach and peer support when they need it, so they can intervene early in order to reduce the negative consequences of mental health disorders in youth. Currently three modules (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder [ADHD], Autism Spectrum Disorder [ASD], and Learning Disabilities [LD]) are at different stages in the innovation pipeline. The investigators will test whether teachers make good use of this program and whether it is effective in improving mental health outcomes among children and youth both at school and at home. The investigators will also study whether the program changes teacher's attitudes toward children and youth with these disorders. The investigators will provide information to the Department of Education on how to use this program. This approach will help ensure that the program will continue after the research study ends. To the Teacher Help team's knowledge Teacher Help is the first and only research-validated eHealth program directly targeting teachers to help them intervene with children and youth who have mental health disorders, thus allowing Canada to take a lead in eHealth as applied to a school context.

This is a study to assess whether memantine is effective and safe in preventing age related cognitive deterioration and dementia in people with Down's syndrome (DS) age 40 and over. The study will last for a year and it will include 180 people with Down's syndrome with and without dementia. Participants will be assessed on memory skills, attention and problem solving abilities. Quality of life and abilities for everyday living skills will also be regularly checked. Primary Aims Clinical: To determine the clinical efficacy of memantine versus placebo in preventing cognitive decline in people with DS. To compare the safety and tolerability of memantine versus placebo in people with Down's syndrome (DS). Biochemical and pathological: To examine the ability of memantine to alter markers of disease progression in DS patients. Secondary Aims Clinical: To determine whether memantine has, as compared with placebo, a significant positive impact on: level of independent functioning as measured by the carer-rated adaptive behavioural scale, (ABS) in adults with DS; quality of life in adults with DS. Biochemical and pathological: To investigate putative markers of memantine's mechanism of action in peripheral samples from living patients with DS.

The investigators perform a prospective, randomized, clinical study involving students in education with mood disorders and randomized to an intensive exercise program or a control relaxation activity.

Research and intervention programs for students with learning disabilities (LD) typically address child and family characteristics without examining the school context and conditions that affect adjustment. Focusing on the student with LD can highlight the child and family's deficits. An ecological theoretical framework guides this research project, a collaboration of the University of Toronto, Faculty of Social Work and Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT), Integra and the Toronto Catholic District School Board. This framework is based on the assumption that people are very much part of and affected by social and environmental settings. Accordingly, it is important not to see the adjustment problems of children with LD as being caused only by their LD. Instead, their academic and social problems are seen as unfolding in larger circumstances that include other children, the classroom, the school, the family and the community. These many factors act together to influence the child with LD and must be taken into account along with individual characteristics of the child.

One of the problems faced by health services that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of Specific Learning Disorders (SLD), like Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dysorthography and Dyscalculia, is the long waiting lists for first visits to possible confirm the diagnosis. One of the reasons explaining the long waiting times is that the school refers a large number of children to the hospital services who do not actually have SLD but a simple school difficulty. These two are very different conditions: SLD is a neurobiological and genetic-based disorder that, with various degrees of severity, lasts a lifetime. Epidemiological data of the FVG region report a prevalence of dyslexia of 3.1%. Therefore, a prevalence of SLD between 4 and 5% can be assumed. This is a condition whose expressiveness cannot be modified by an enhancement intervention; The school difficulties are not innate and are characterized by an initial slowdown in bed-writing learning. The prevalence of low-performance school difficulties is between 10 and 15%. This type of problem improves significantly following specific enhancement. Resistance to enhancement intervention is precisely one of the criteria that is still used to distinguish a school difficulty from a SLD: students with SLD would be those who show resistance to specific educational interventions. This criterion is based on the assumption that SLD has a precise neurofunctional basis in contrast to school difficulties. These are a transitional condition, which can be modified by didactic adaptations and enhancement activities (Law 170/2010; regional resolution 933/2014 FVG). The application of enhancement tools in the school environment would therefore make it possible to distinguish, on the basis of the response, subjects with simple school difficulties from those with suspected SLD and, therefore, to report just those one, to the health services for diagnostic confirmation, contributing to the reduction of the workload of the hospital services and the reduction of waiting lists. These results are very important for children with SLD who could be identified and treated in an early and timely manner. The aim of this project is to apply an online screening and further school enhancement process using the "InTempo software" to distinguish children with SLD from those with school difficulties, thus also obtaining data on the real incidence of SLD and school difficulties in The Friuli Venezia Giulia Region.

People with learning (intellectual) disabilities have more health problems than the rest of the population; they are less likely to access help and have lifestyles that may increase their risk of getting diabetes (for example, poor diet and lack of physical activity). People with learning disabilities may also be prescribed drugs or have certain medical conditions (such as Down's syndrome) which can make their chances of getting diabetes greater. Diabetes is a long-term condition, which can cause damage to the eyes, heart, kidneys, nerves and feet. Impaired glucose regulation happens when sugar levels in the blood are higher than normal but are not high enough to be diagnosed with diabetes. People with impaired glucose regulation are more likely to develop diabetes, heart disease and stroke in the future. If people with impaired glucose regulation make changes to their lifestyle (diet and exercise) they can prevent or delay getting diabetes. The aim of this study is to screen people with learning disabilities for diabetes and impaired glucose regulation. The investigators also want to find out the best way to give people with learning disabilities some education around healthy lifestyles (for example, eating and exercise) to help with prevention of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Therefore, the investigators also aim to develop a lifestyle education programme that is suitable for use in this population and test whether it is feasible and acceptable.

The group of experts at HAS has defined the places of first and second-line workers in specific disorders of development and learning, as defined in the international diagnostic classifications International Classification of Diseases (CIM) CIM 11 and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) DSM 5. The referral to a second-level structure, a multidisciplinary structure in charge of carrying out the different cognitive assessments, requires a preliminary evaluation. This orientation is based on a medical consultation, carried out by a doctor specialized in the field, with an exploration tool adapted to the different fields concerned. The BMTi, a battery of third-generation tests (after the Rapid battery of evaluation of the cognitive functions (BREV) and then the Evaluation of cognitive functions and learning of the child (EDA)) will enable the doctor, from 2018, to carry out this orientation in a relevant way in response to children with a complaint about neurodevelopment and learning. . The research project aims to validate this hypothesis, by comparing the diagnoses posed in a conventional way with the various multidisciplinary assessments, with the results of the transfer of all or part of the subtests of the BMTi by a doctor of second resort.

Learning disability affects 3% of the population. Severe types of learning disability are more likely to have an underlying genetic cause but diagnosis is difficult because many different genetic abnormalities may be involved. Obtaining a diagnosis is important so that patients can be managed appropriately and their families can be given accurate information. We aim to use new types of genetic testing which will make it possible to screen for several different genetic abnormalities which cause learning disability at the same time, so improving the accuracy and speed of diagnosis in the group of patients with severe learning disability. We will focus particularly on patients where seizures and behavioural problems are also present.This will enable more patients to be diagnosed accurately, reduce the number of hospital appointments needed and ultimately be more cost- effective.

In this randomized case control study we will evaluate the additive effect of psychological intervention, i.e CBT-cognitive behavioral treatment in a multi-strategy weight loss program composed of physical activity intervention and nutritional programme.

Children with Specific Learning Difficulties (SLD) may have problems with fine and gross motor skills compared to their healthy peers. These children may have poor manual dexterity. Taken together, it is not clear how motor and sensory competence of the hand are affected together. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the sensory and motor ability of the hand and to compare the examined parameters between the SLD group and the healthy control group.