Design and evaluation of Child Health Index of Life with Disabilities(CHILD) as perceived by children with severe developmental disabilities

Cerebral Palsy(CP) is a brain developmental disorder and a major cause of chronic childhood disability. It affects about 2 to 2.5 children per 1000 live births. Children with CP have varying symptoms affecting communication, health and specially mobility depending on the severity of the disorder. Children with severe CP usually have very limited mobility and are non-verbal but have normal or above average levels of intelligence though mental retardation is sometimes associated with them. To improve their quality of life often health interventions(corrective measures) in terms of surgery or assistive devices are administered to them which may be useful from the surgeon’s perspective. There is no evidence whether it actually is useful for the child. At present there is a questionnaire which evaluates the effectiveness of the intervention from the caregiver’s perspective as majority of children with severe CP are unable to communicate. The proposed project aims at developing an interactive audiovisual interface which enables the child to answer the questionnaire. It is aimed at children who have severe CP with normal to high levels of intelligence and are nonverbal but can communicate with a communicating device. The interface will be designed to be accessible by communicating devices.

Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Tom Chau

Student:

Nayanashri Thalanki Anantha

Partner:

Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital & Sick Kids Hospital

Discipline:

Engineering - other

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

University of Toronto