Project Description

Challenge

It is well established that children benefit from physical activity. But for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities, participating in these activities is often challenging, which prevents them from engaging and, in turn, limits their development even further.

Project Summary

Community-based physical activity programs (PAPs) represent a low-cost, high-impact intervention strategy that can improve the function and wellbeing for both children with brain-based disabilities and their caregivers. These programs not only promote physical literacy but also provide children with neurodevelopmental disabilities the opportunity to participate in activities with peers while simultaneously providing therapeutic benefits.

A team led by Dr. Jean-Paul Collet (University of British Columbia) is studying the impact of these programs, to determine which components provide the most benefit to children with brain-based disabilities. The team is assessing programs that work with children and youth that have—or are suspected of having—any type of neurodevelopmental disability. In other words, this isn’t a diagnosis-specific approach. The ultimate goal is to provide community groups that deliver physical activity programs a practical and reproducible framework of how best to implement their program, which will include evaluation tools to assess improvement in participants.

Result

Dr. Collet and his team started this project by looking at Club Aviva, which delivers Empowering Steps Movement Therapy. This gymnastics-based movement program provides structured coaching and individualized interventions for children and youth with brain-based disabilities.  They studied 67 participants and found improvement in both motor function and daily life activities. Since then, they have forged more partnerships, including ones with Special Olympics BC and Richmond Therapeutic Riding Association and are in the process of evaluating these programs to determine which aspects of each are useful and why, and how they could be improved. This project is the first large scale community-based mixed-method study that investigates the effects of several types of community-based PAPS on children with brain-based disabilities.

Funding

Kids Brain Health Network – $150,450
Partners – $203,730

Team

Dr. Jean-Paul Collet, BC Children’s Hospital

Partners

Club Aviva
Special Olympics BC
Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children
Soccer Dogs
Richmond Therapeutic Riding
Douglas College Therapeutic Recreation Program