Dear CanChild,

Welcome to the October 19th edition of CanChild Today! In this issue, we highlight the achievements of CanChild members, new initiatives and events, information about this week's featured CanChild product, opportunities to participate in research studies, and summaries of new publications by our CanChild members!

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Our past issues are archived on the CanChild website and can be accessed here.

Congratulations to Dr. Peter Rosenbaum, who has been awarded the Dr. Peter B. Dent Memorial Research Impact Fund. This annual fund recognizes a physician-researcher within the Department of Pediatrics who demonstrates exceptional collaboration and excellence, ultimately leading to improved healthcare for children in our community and beyond. 

The Department of Pediatrics hosted the second annual Dr. Peter B. Dent Memorial Lecture on Thursday, October 12, 2023. The event stands as a testament to the enduring excellence in pediatric care, research, education, and leadership that Dr. Dent established. 

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CanChild has just launched our very own Instagram account! Make sure you follow us for the latest updates on our groundbreaking research, resources, shop products, events, and other initiatives!

CanChild's Instagram: @canchild_mcmaster

Every child’s story is a treasure: Children with disabilities and their parents speak about their experiences during the Covid 19 pandemic and their needs for services and supports moving forward.

Children and youth with disabilities and special healthcare needs, and their families, have been uniquely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This research study is a partnership between youth, parents, and researchers. We used a combination of visual methods and interviews to learn about the experiences of these children and their parents to identify the supports and services children and families need at present and moving forward. 

The presenters for this event are the researchers, parents and youth from the Covid Time Capsule research team.

Date: Wednesday, November 1st at 7 p.m. EST

Location: Online 

Ready, Set, Go: Finding Positive Solutions to Support a Successful Landing in the Adult World



The Child Health Hub in Transition to Adult Healthcare is excited to host the 2nd Transition to Adulthood Pop-Up event with Children's Healthcare Canada.

Date: December 2-3, 2023

Location: Hyatt Regency in downtown Vancouver

Participants will hear from local, provincial, and Canadian thought leaders, peers and families. You can expect presentations and panels with young people and parents, networking opportunities, and a showcase of current evidence-based solutions for healthcare transition. For those unable to join in-person, aspects of the event will be made available in a virtual format.

For more information, visit the Transition Hub website.

The Participation and Environment Measure - Children and Youth (PEM-CY) is a measure that evaluates participation in the home, at school, and in the community, alongside environmental factors within each of these settings. 

PEM-CY is the first measure of its kind as it assesses both participation and environmental factors in the same framework. The PEM-CY allows parents and service providers to understand more about a child/youth’s current level of participation, while encouraging problem solving strategies around changeable elements within each setting to better support further participation.

The PEM-CY can be used for children and youth between the ages of 5 to 17 years-old, with or without disabilities.

For additional information about this product, visit the CanChild Shop!

Exploring the Impact of Factors on Children's Viewing Experiences

In partnership with CBC Kids and Reading Lab, CanChild is exploring the impact of different factors on children's video-viewing experiences.

This research study is ideal for English-speaking children in Canada aged 6 to 10. Participants will watch short video clips and answer questions afterward. Children will need a minimum first-grade reading level to participate. Children with significant cognitive impairment are not eligible for the study but those with corrected visual impairments are welcome to participate. It can take place online or in person at McMaster University.

Interested parents, please email cbccc@mcmaster.ca. Compensation will be provided whether your child completes the study or chooses to withdraw at any point. Please note that no-shows will not be compensated.

This study has been reviewed by the Hamilton Research Ethics Board under Project #16432. 

Help us Pilot the ENVISAGE-SP Program

We wish to engage with service providers (SPs) who work with children with developmental challenges, delays or disabilities and their families. Our aim is to pilot a series of five online workshops for service providers. 

We are a team of researchers, clinicians and parent researchers in Canada and Australia. We have co-designed a series of workshops for service providers, called ENVISAGE-SP. Developed from our current family-directed ENVISAGE-FAMILIES program, the focus of ENVISAGE-SP is to introduce service providers to new ideas about health, development, parenting, family well-being, and ways to communicate and collaborate with families and colleagues.

What is ENVISAGE? 

ENVISAGE stands for ENabling VISions And Growing Expectations. ENVISAGE-FAMILIES comprises five caregiver-friendly online workshops for parents/caregivers of young children new to the journey of parenting a child with a neurodisability.

The overall aims of the ENVISAGE-SP program are to:  

(i) increase service providers’ knowledge of, and attitudes towards, skills and self-efficacy to apply contemporary evidence-informed holistic, strengths-based, function-promoting, and family-centred approaches, and support the translation of these key ideas into clinical practice, and 

(ii) enhance service providers' practice by providing a vehicle and tools for how to better support families  

Measure of Processes of Care (MPOC 2.0)

Researchers at CanChild have developed a new questionnaire to measure parents’ experiences with healthcare services for their children with disabilities. Now, we would like to have parents test it out!

Complete a set of questions to tell us about your experiences with healthcare services. You will receive a $20 e-gift card upon completion!

Interested in participating? Want more information?

Please email the study team at mpoc2@mcmaster.ca

This study has been reviewed by the Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board under project #15702.

Collaboration: How does it work according to therapists and parents of young children? A systematic review

This systematic review aims to clarify how therapists can optimize their collaboration with parents of young children with developmental disabilities, according to the perspectives of parents and therapists. Collaboration between therapists and parents of children with developmental disabilities is vital to family-centred care. In practice, collaboration appears to be challenging for both parents and therapists. The systematic review was conducted using various databases to search through 3439 records, which focused on collaboration using a two-way interaction between therapists and parents, exploring the perspectives of therapists or parents of children between 2 and 6 years. These papers needed to be published in English or Dutch between 1998 and July 2021. Of these records, 24 papers and their results sections were qualitatively analyzed to synthesize specific collaboration strategies. The strategies were organized into five clusters: (1) continuously invest time in your collaboration with parents, (2) be aware of your important role in the collaboration with parents, (3) tailor your approach, (4) get to know the family and (5) empower parents to become a collaborative partner. The strategies formulated through this review help therapists make intentional decisions to optimize their collaboration with each parent. Making these strategies explicit facilitates a change of practice from therapist-led and child-centred towards family-centred care.

Authors: Inge S. Klatte, Marjolijn Ketelaar, Annemieke de Groot, Manon Bloemen, Ellen Gerrits

Partnering for Change: collaborating to transform occupational therapy services that support inclusive education

This perspective article describes the Partnering for Change (P4C) model and its evolution. The article also outlines how P4C has been implemented in Canadian and international contexts to facilitate children’s inclusion and participation in educational settings. The United Nations views inclusive education as a moral obligation, requiring equitable learning environments that meet all individuals’ diverse learning needs and abilities, including children and youth. Yet, the practice of inclusive education is variable, and implementation challenges persist. A participatory action research framework was used to develop a solution – P4C. P4C is an innovative approach to providing occupational therapy services in schools. P4C transforms how occupational therapists work in schools by shifting their role from only providing services to individual children to becoming collaborative partners within the whole school community.

Authors: Wenonah Campbell, Cheryl Missiuna, Leah Dix, Sandra Sahagian Whalen

Structural validity and internal consistency of an outcome measure to assess self-reported educator capacity to support children with motor difficulties



This paper describes the development of the Partnering for Change (P4C) Educator Questionnaire and evaluates its structural validity and internal consistency. The P4C Educator Questionnaire was completed by 1216 educators four times across two years. The data from these responses were analyzed through exploratory factor analysis, which led to the following conclusion: This novel way for educators to self-report how well they can help students with motor difficulties is both reliable and consistent, confirming the hypothesis. Using this as a complete scale accompanied by additional validation research is currently recommended.

Author: Peter T. Cahill, Cheryl A. Missiuna, Cindy DeCola, Leah Dix, Wenonah N. Campbell