Clinical Research Directory

Effect of a Telerehabilitation-Supported, Family-Centered Early Intervention Program on Neurodevelopmental and Parental Outcomes in Infants at Mild-to-Moderate Risk

The goal of this pilot randomized controlled trial is to learn whether a family-centered early intervention program, delivered remotely to parents and carried out at home, can support the development of infants who were treated in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and are at mild-to-moderate developmental risk (for example, due to preterm birth or low birth weight). The study will also look at whether the program helps parents' stress and well-being. The main questions it aims to answer are: Does the remote family-centered early intervention program improve infants' motor, cognitive, language, and neurological development compared with standard care? Does the program reduce parental stress and anxiety and improve parents' perception of family-centered care? Researchers will compare an intervention group with a control group receiving standard information and routine follow-up, to see whether the program leads to better infant and parent outcomes. The study will include 36 infants (18 per group) with a corrected age of 6 to 10 months. Participants in the intervention group will: Attend weekly online sessions with the research team for 10 weeks Carry out a home-based developmental activity program with their infant Share short videos of home practice and receive feedback, with follow-up via messaging Participants in the control group will receive standard information and routine follow-up. Infant development will be assessed with the Bayley-III and SINDA, and parents will complete questionnaires on stress, anxiety, and family-centered care. Assessors will be blinded to group assignment.

Ayre's Sensory-Motor Integration Exercises and Sensory Modulation And Motor Skills In Children With ASD

This study will adopt a quasi-experimental design, featuring assessments before and after the intervention for both the experimental and control groups. We plan to recruit thirty children aged 9 to 11 years, all diagnosed with ASD, from a local clinical setting. Participants will be randomly assigned to either a treatment group, which will undergo 12 sessions of sensory-motor integration exercises, or a control group that will receive standard care. Each session will include structured sensory-based activities based on Ayres Sensory Integration® principles.

Ready, Set, Go! A Physical Fitness Intervention for Children With Mobility Challenges

Barriers to keeping and maintaining fitness as a young person with a disability exist across many domains of access to community locations such as fitness centers, so looking outside of these establishments may be necessary to advance fitness. This study is aimed at piloting a program that would address some of these barriers by hosting a modified after school running program with an underserved population in an accessible way. There is a second option to participate outside of school.

Animal-Assisted Therapy Combined With Standard Rehabilitation for Motor Recovery in Dementia Patients in a Medical and Rehabilitation Care Unit

The goal of this randomized study is to find out if animal-assisted therapy (AAT) - a structured program where trained animals take part in care sessions guided by health professionals - can help improve movement abilities in older adults with dementia or memory-related conditions who are staying in a medical rehabilitation unit. The main questions this study aims to answer are: * Can adding animal-assisted therapy to standard rehabilitation improve participants' movement and motor abilities better than standard rehabilitation alone? * Can this combined approach help participants stay more independent in daily activities? * Can this combined approach improve participants' quality of life? * Can this combined approach reduce the risk of falls? Researchers will compare two groups: * Group 1 (experimental): Standard rehabilitation + animal-assisted therapy sessions with a trained dog and/or rabbits * Group 2 (control): Standard rehabilitation alone Both groups attend 2 one-hour rehabilitation sessions per week for 4 weeks. Participants will: * Complete movement and daily-life ability tests at the start and end of the study * Attend 8 rehabilitation sessions (over 4 weeks) * Participants in the animal therapy group will interact with a trained dog and/or rabbits during sessions, guided by a certified nurse-animal therapist, a psychomotor therapist, and a nursing assistant * Be assessed at the end of the 4-week program (Week 6) to measure any changes in motor abilities, independence, quality of life, and fall risk

Program Intensive Habilitation (PIH) for Young Children With Early Brain Damage

By longitudinal, prospective research in children with neurodisabilities including severe motor impairments and their parents to explore the beneficial effects of participating in an intensive habilitation program on the child's adaptive functioning and parental empowerment in order to treat and reduce the consequences of early brain damage.

Developmental Coordination Disorder

Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) corresponds to a clumsiness, a slowness and an inaccuracy of motor performance. This neurodevelopmental disorder affects 6% of school-aged children, and disturbs daily life activities and academic performances. The etiology of DCD is still unknown. An understanding of this disorder is necessary to improve interventions and therefore quality of life of these people. A deficit of the so-called internal models is the most commonly described hypothesis of DCD. Indeed, children with DCD exhibit difficulties in predictive control. Internal models, useful for motor control, are closely related to the sensory system, as they are elaborated on and constantly fed by sensory feedback. Deficits in sensory performance are described in DCD, mostly in the visual system, which could in turn partly explain poor motor performance. However, visuo-perceptual deficits cannot explain the entire motor difficulties because some activities in daily life, as buttoning a shirt, are often performed without visual control. Although the integrity of proprioceptive and tactile systems is necessary for the building of internal models, and therefore for a stable motor control, these sensory systems have been very little investigated in DCD. Moreover, using a tool is often disturbed in children with DCD. In neurotypical subjects, tool use induces a plasticity of body representation, as reflected by modifications of movement kinematics after tool use. Proprioceptive abilities are necessary for this update of the body schema. Thus, potential deficits of the proprioceptive system in children with DCD could impair the plastic modification of the body schema, and hence of motor performance, when using a tool. The aim of this study is to identify the main cause of the DCD, both by evaluating the tactile and proprioceptive abilities and by assessing the body schema updating abilities in children with DCD. While some daily life activities improve with age, some motor difficulties persist in adults with DCD. To our knowledge, perceptual abilities have never been investigated in adults with DCD and it is thus unknown whether perceptual deficits are still present in adulthood. This information could allow us to understand if motor difficulties in adult DCD are caused by enduring perceptual deficits and/or impaired plasticity of body schema. The second aim of this study is to evaluate abilities of perception and of body schema plasticity in adults with DCD.

Motor Development and Early Predictors of Psychomotor Outcomes in Preterm and Term Infants Assessed by MOS-R and Caregiver Questionnaire at 18 and 36 Months

This study examines how early motor behavior in infants relates to their later psychomotor development. Researchers will observe both preterm and full-term infants during the first months of life, using video-based assessments to evaluate spontaneous movements and early postural control. These early motor patterns will be scored with the Motor Optimality Score - Revised (MOS-R). When the children reach 18 and 36 months of age, their development in areas such as motor skills, communication, sensory processing, and social behavior will be evaluated through a caregiver-completed questionnaire. The purpose of the study is to determine whether early motor quality can predict later developmental outcomes, whether preterm and full-term infants with similar motor scores develop differently, and whether early therapy may improve outcomes for infants with low MOS-R results.

Grand Valley State University (GVSU) Skills on Wheels

Manual wheelchairs (MWCs) are widely used by children with physical disabilities, yet many of these children are unable to use their wheelchair independently. Instead, they depend on others to push them. This dependency results in limited opportunities to decide what they want to do and where they want to go, leading to learned helplessness, social isolation, decreased participation, and restricted involvement in physical activities. Furthermore, unsafe MWC use increases the risk of injury, as highlighted by the 44,300 children treated each year in emergency departments for MWC-related injuries. While independent MWC mobility can positively influence quality of life, MWC skills training must also be provided to promote safe, independent MWC use. The effectiveness of MWC training programs for adults is well established, yet the current standard-of-care does not include MWC skills training for children and research regarding the efficacy of pediatric MWC skills training programs is limited. Skills on Wheels seeks to address these gaps and provide pilot data for a future large-scale, multi-site research project involving a randomized controlled trial. Aim 1 is to explore the influence of Skills on Wheels on children's MWC skills and confidence in their MWC use. Aim 2 is to investigate the influence of Skills on Wheels on children's psychosocial skills, social participation, and adaptive behavior.