Key Research Areas & Projects

People with developmental disabilities face serious challenges in all areas of their lives, from education and work to health and daily living. We conduct research to build useful knowledge in all of these areas.

Choice

Choice empowers us, and is a key dimension of quality of life. But some people with developmental disabilities may benefit from extra support during choice making. For example, choice options may be more meaningful if they are presented in a particular format. A person may not be able to respond effectively to the question, "What would you like to do this evening?" Yet he or she may be able to indicate his or her true wishes by pointing to pictures of activities. Research can benefit supporting family, teachers, and caregivers by providing an accurate and practical way to determine the best method for presenting choices.

Autism

We do not yet fully understand what causes autism, but research tells us that many affected children can benefit greatly from early intensive behavioural intervention (EIBI). EIBI is now a government-funded service in many jurisdictions across Canada, including Manitoba, where we're conducting a longitudinal evaluation of ABA Program outcomes.

We're studying ways to teach perspective-taking to children with autism, who are often challenged by this skill. Our prevalence study will help service planners to know how many children need the service. Our genetics study will contribute to finding the cause of autism, to providing early diagnosis so that appropriate services will reach those children and families as quickly as possible, and to pave the way for developing more effective treatments.

Community Health

People with developmental disabilities experience more health related problems than the general population, and many of these conditions can be treated if they're identified early. Yet we don't really know how health care services are being used by persons with developmental disabilities living in the community.

There has not been any study on health and health care utilization patterns of individuals living with developmental disabilities in Manitoba. Our pilot study funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research shown that we are able to reliably distinguish persons with and without developmental disabilities based on Manitoba administrative databases. Using the validated definition, we are now in the process of examining a number of health indicators to describe and compare health status and health care utilization patterns of people with and without DD living in the province of Manitoba. With the increased life expectancy for people with DD, we are also aiming to study health-related issues associated with the aging of this population.

We're also studying the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders in Manitoba and across Canada.

Education of Health Care Professionals

The health care system is straining to meet the needs of the general population and is unprepared to properly care for increasing numbers of persons with developmental disabilities. Educational preparation of health and other related professionals is one of the issues being examined to learn how to better equip our health care system to care for people with developmental disabilities.

Previous research has found that attitudes of health care professionals towards people with developmental disabilities influence the care that they provide. Our research has indicated that new health care professionals do not have positive attitudes towards people with developmental disabilities and this may be because they lack information in their education programs and do not have positive role models. We are working to provide better education for faculty and students to begin the process of integrating information about developmental disabilities into nursing and other health care professionals' educational programs so that future health care providers are better prepared to care for people with developmental disabilities in a variety of health care settings.

Families

Families of individuals with developmental disabilities often provide the most important and enduring relationships and support that individuals will experience across their life spans. We're developing research on ways to assess and meet the needs of these families as they face life transitions - their own and those of their family member with a disability.

As families of people with developmental disabilities must make difficult decisions regarding care of their family member, many conflicts arise with health care providers. A current research study is underway to understand the decision-making process which happens when gastrostomy feeding needs to be considered. We will examine both the families' and the health care providers' perspectives to try to develop educational tools to facilitate a smoother transition during this process.

Effective Teaching Technology

We have all been students at one time, and can remember lessons that seemed beyond our ability when they were first introduced. We had to slowly build up the required skill and knowledge, until what had seemed impossible was suddenly within our grasp. Clearly, identifying the basic building blocks of learning is a critical part of teaching. How can we apply this principle when the students face special learning challenges? What component skills are needed for the many everyday tasks that may presently be too difficult for those with developmental disabilities? Our research into the Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities (ABLA) aims to answer these and other questions. Our goal is to develop the ABLA into a teaching technology that can help any student achieve levels that once seemed impossible.

Knowledge Translation

Families touched by developmental disabilities are often bewildered by the amount of information about treatments and services. Moreover, sorting facts from fiction can be a daunting task. Practitioners often have no access to scientific journals to guide their practices. Administrators and policymakers need evidence to make informed decisions on resource allocation.

How can we help to ease these burdens? At the Research Centre we feel a social and scientific responsibility not only to create new knowledge, but to bring research to life for everyone whose lives are touched by a developmental disability. We are collaborating with stakeholders to lead the implementation of a knowledge translation process for Manitoba and beyond.