KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
JAN WILLEM GORTER, CANADA
Jan Willem Gorter, MD, PhD, FRCP (C)
CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research
Department of Pediatrics, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON Canada.
Title: Turn the Tide on Transition to Promote Participation
More young people with disabilities grow up and become adults living in the community. Worldwide, there is a need for better transitional care for adolescents with disabilities and their families leaving the pediatric care system. What can be done to turn the tide on transition? This presentation will focus on an approach to promote meaningful participation outcomes in adulthood and includes innovative eHealth strategies to help young people prepare for their future.
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Jan Willem has training in pediatric and adult physical medicine and rehabilitation with a special clinical and research interest in healthcare transition and lifecourse health development. He has extensive clinical and research experience in the transition to adulthood and leads a teen-transition clinic for adolescents with disabilities and their families at McMaster Children’s Hospital.
He chairs the national Transitions’ Community of Practice in Canada and has co-lead and co-authored Ontario’s and Canada’s Transition guidelines, respectively. Jan Willem has developed the Transition-Q measure and the MyTransition App. He currently is (co) principal investigator on various eHealth transition intervention studies.
Jan Willem has published extensively including 170 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals and 16 chapters in books, including transition to adulthood and ethical issues in transition.
BRYCE JOHNSON, USA
Bryce Johnson, Inclusive Lead, Product Research & Accessibility
Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft Devices, Seattle, USA
Title: The Xbox Adaptive Controller, Intentionally including gamers with limited mobility
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LEE RIDLEY (« LOST VOICE GUY »), UK
Lee Ridley (« Lost Voice Guy »), Stand-up comedian
UK
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Lee won Britain’s Got Talent in 2018 and the BBC New Comedy Award in 2014. Lee’s other credits include I Just Called To Say… (Sky Arts), Ability (BBC Radio 4), The One Show (BBC One), Breakfast (BBC One), This Morning(ITV), Lorraine (ITV) and Comedy Central At The Comedy Store (Comedy Central UK).
Lee made his first stand-up performance in February 2012 and now gigs all over the country for many of the major comedy bookers and clubs such as The Stand, Glee, The Frog & Bucket, Hilarity Bites and Funhouse Comedy. He has also supported Patrick Kielty and Ross Noble on tour. In 2013 Lee took his first ever solo show to the Edinburgh Fringe and has performed a show there every year since. He has also performed at the Brighton Fringe, Glasgow International Comedy Festival, Leicester Comedy Festival, Nottingham Comedy Festival and Liverpool Comedy Festival.
Lee has told jokes/given motivational speeches for a range of charities and organisations including Barclays, Scope and The Royal College of Nurses. He is also a patron of Smile For Life, Find A Voice, Communication Matters and The Sequal Trust.
SUE FLETCHER WATSON, UK
Sue Fletcher Watson, Senior Research Fellow
Patrick Wild Centre, University of Edinburgh
Title: Merging psychological theory with a neurodiversity framework for better autism interventions.
The neurodiversity movement emphasises natural variability in the way that different people’s brains work. It is associated with the disability rights and autistic rights movement, which calls for greater understanding of autism (and other neurodevelopment conditions) in terms of differences rather than deficits. Taken at face value, the neurodiversity principle seems to be hard to reconcile with the high levels of need often encountered in clinical and education settings. Can we adopt a neurodiversity framework while also providing evidence-based supports where they are needed? In this talk Sue Fletcher-Watson will describe how a progressive model of autism can be combined with psychological theory and participatory methods to deliver evidence based interventions without compromising respect or scientific integrity.
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YANNICK BLEYENHEUFT, BELGIUM
Yannick Bleyenheuft, PT, PhD
Professor at the Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
Honorary attached to the Center for Cerebral Palsy Research of the Teachers College, Columbia University, NY, USA
Title: HABIT-ILE, an intensive intervention increasing autonomy and participation in children with cerebral palsy.
Hand and Arm Bimanual Intensive Therapy Including Lower Extremities has gained a growing interest since its development in 2011. This motor-skill learning based intervention uses functional goals defined by the children and their parents to promote autonomy and participation. Its effectiveness has been demonstrated in children with both unilateral and with bilateral CP, and the observed functional improvements have shown a link to neuroplastic changes. This keynote will focus on the key principles of HABIT-ILE, the improvements obtained in different subgroups of children with CP at the level of motor and non-motor functions, and the changes induced in autonomy and social participation
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FREEMAN MILLER, USA
Freeman Miller, M.D.
Last Co-director of the Cerebral Palsy Program and the Clinical Director of the Gait Analysis Laboratory at the A.I. duPont Hospital for Children,
Title: Future Options for Managing Complex Multi-system Disabilities
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DAPHNE BAVELIER, SWITZERLAND
Daphne Bavelier, Pr
FPSE, University of Geneva
Title: Learning and transfer: Lessons from action video games
Action video game players outperform their non-action-game playing peers on various sensory, attentional and cognitive tasks. A training regimen whose benefits are so broad is rather unprecedented and provides a unique opportunity to identify factors that underlie generalization of learning and principles of brain plasticity. We propose that a common mechanism is at the source of this wide range of skill improvement. In particular, improvement in performance following action video game play results from greater learning to learn abilities. We will see that behavioral and neural markers of attentional control are enhanced in gamers, allowing them to better focus on the task at hand and ignore distractors or sources of noise. Such focus on task-relevant statistics appears to allow for not only more informed decision making but also faster learning and greater transfer. Practical applications from education to rehabilitation will be discussed
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Daphne Bavelier is an internationally-recognized expert on how humans learn. In particular, she studies how the brain adapts to changes in experience, either by nature – for example, deafness – or by training – for example, playing video games. Her lab established that playing fast-paced, action-packed entertainment video games typically thought to be mind-numbing actually benefits several aspects of behavior. Exploiting this counter-intuitive finding, the Cognitive Neuroscience research team she now heads at the University of Geneva, Switzerland investigates how new media, such as video games, can be leveraged to foster learning and brain plasticity.
Bavelier is a co-founding scientific advisor of Akili Interactive, a company which develops clinically-validated cognitive therapeutics that exploit video games, and has contributed as an expert for the World Economic Forum in domains as varied as Education (New Vision for Education: Unlocking the potential of technology) or Human Enhancement (World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Human Enhancement).
BERNARD DAN, BELGIUM
Bernard Dan, Paediatric neurologist and rehabilitation physician
Université libre de Bruxelles and Inkendaal Rehabilitation Hospital
Title: Human enhancement: from disability to hyperability
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MATTHIEU CHATELIN, FRANCE
Matthieu Chatelin
President of the Friends of the Cerebral Palsy’s Foundation Society
Title: Inclusion towards innovation and participation
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Matthieu obtained two Masters of Arts in the fields of Human Rights and International relations, thanks to the studies he completed both at University College London and the American University of Paris. He lived in London for several years prior to coming back in France during 2015.
He is a strong advocate in terms of Disability Rights and Human Rights at the international level. Following a United Nations volunteering which he undertook at the European Arm of the Office of the UN High-Commissioner for Human Rights, Matthieu carries on with his duties as an elected official.
Since 2015, he sits at the European Disability forum and since 2017 he equally serves as a delegate at the 4th European Parliament of persons with disabilities.
ROSLYN BOYD, AUSTRALIA
Roslyn Boyd, Pr
Queensland Cerebral Palsy and Rehabilitation Research Centre, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland
Title: Active ingredients of rehabilitation for children with Cerebral Palsy
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LEANNE SAKZEWSKI, AUSTRALIA
Leanne Sakzewski, Dr
Queensland Cerebral Palsy and Rehabilitation Research Centre, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland
Title: Unmasking the black box of participation-focused therapy for children with cerebral palsy
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FARIDA BEDWEI, GHANA
Farida Bedwei, Software Engineer, Disability Rights Advocate & Author
Logiciel Ghana Ltd, CTO
Title: How Cerebral Palsy gave me a career in Tech
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ARNOLD MUNNICH, FRANCE
Arnold Munnich, Professor of Genetics, University Paris-Descartes & President, Imagine Foundation
Title: Genetics in Childhood Neurodisability : progress and ethical challenges
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MONIKA MAKAY
Monika Makay, in charge of the EMPL Committee’s activities related to the UN CRPD
Title: Towards a genuinely inclusive European Union for children and youth with disabilities – The European Parliament’s perspective
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