Director

Dr. Cheryl Missiuna, (905) 525-9140 ext. 27842
Dr. Cheryl Missiuna is Director of CanChild and a Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University. She is an occupational therapist with graduate level training in educational psychology and special education. Cheryl contributes expertise to CanChild regarding children with developmental coordination disorder and models of service delivery in pediatric rehabilitation. Her current research interests include developing and evaluating innovative models of service delivery in school health support services, early identification and prevention of secondary consequences in children with developmental coordination disorder, and developing educational resources for parents, teachers, physicians and service providers.

Co-Founders

Dr. Mary Law, (905) 525-9140 ext. 27837
Mary Law is Co-Founder of CanChild. She is an occupational therapist with graduate training in health research methods and health and social planning. Mary is currently a Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Science and holds the John and Margaret Lillie Chair in Childhood Disability Research. Her research in CanChild studies the factors in communities that help or hinder children with disabilities to participate in daily activities. She is also involved in research to evaluate the effectiveness of rehabilitation services for young children with disabilities. Mary works together with families in doing research to ensure that knowledge is used to support their children's participation.

Dr. Peter Rosenbaum, (905) 525-9140 ext. 27834
Dr. Peter Rosenbaum is Co-Founder of CanChild. He is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and an Associate Member of the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McMaster University. Peter holds a CIHR Canada Research Chair in Childhood Disability (2001-2007 & 2008-2014) which allows Peter to devote his time to clinical and health services research. His research interests include studies of the processes of care research program, the evaluation of family-centred functional approaches to care, how to describe and measure functional status and the development and implementation of a database system for gross motor disability. He works with a number of graduate students at several universities. In 2007 Peter became the inaugural Director of the McMaster Child Health Research Institute, of which CanChild is a Founding Member.

Investigators

Dr. Doreen Bartlett, (519) 661-2111 ext. 88953
Doreen is interested in the use of observational methods to gain a more in-depth understanding of the multiple child, family, and environmental variables (or determinants) that contribute to early motor development of infants born full-term, infants born preterm, and preschool children with cerebral palsy. Significant determinants that are amenable to change are targets for intervention, whereas significant determinants that cannot change assist with realistic goal setting. Using this approach, both effectiveness and efficiency of service delivery can be enhanced.

Dr. John Cairney, (905) 525-9140 ext. 28506
Dr. John Cairney is an associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences. He is also the President of the Canadian Academy of Psychiatric Epidemiology, one of the academies of the Canadian Psychiatric Association.  His research interests include the epidemiology of mental health problems across the life span and the impact of childhood physical disability on psychosocial and physical development in children, particularly in Developmental Coordination Disorder. He has won many awards for his scholarly achievements and has been nominated twice for the prestigious Canada's Top 40 Under 40 Award. John is the first individual to be appointed to the McMaster Family Medicine Professorship in Child Health Research and will be working on research initiatives that will bring together researchers in multiple departments at McMaster and at CanChild.

Dr. Eyal Cohen, (416) 813-5795
Dr. Eyal Cohen is a general paediatrician at the Hospital for Sick Children and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto.  His research interests focus on models of care coordination for children with complex and chronic health needs, improving the quality of inpatient care, and barriers to conducting research in vulnerable populations.

Carol DeMatteo, (905) 525-9140 ext. 27805
Carol DeMatteo has a dual background as an occupational therapist and physiotherapist with graduate training in clinical epidemiology and biostatistics. She is an Associate Clinical professor in the School of Rehabilitation Science, McMaster University. Her research includes follow-up of children with acquired brain injury, feeding problems in children, and outcomes in infants with obstetrical brachial plexus injuries. As a Clinical Specialist in Pediatric Occupational Therapy at the McMaster Children's Hospital, she brings the acute rehabilitation perspective to CanChild.

Dr. Robin Gaines, (613) 737-2393 ext. 3940
Robin Gaines, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, SLP (C), CASLPO is a Clinical Researcher with the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario and a clinical Speech/Language Pathologist at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario and the First Words Preschool Speech/Language Program in Ottawa. She also holds an adjunct professorship with the School of Rehab at U of Ottawa. Robin has experience working with preschool and school age children with speech/language disorders. Robin's research interests include the early identification of speech/language delays and motor coordination difficulties in children, interventions for children with motor speech difficulties and inter-professional teamwork for children/families.

Dr. Jan Willem Gorter, (905) 525-9140 ext. 27855
Jan Willem Gorter, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics at McMaster University, and investigator at CanChild.  Dr Gorter did post doctoral training at CanChild in 2002 and went back to the Netherlands where he was co-founder of NetChild Network for Childhood Disability Research in the Netherlands (January 2003).  He joined CanChild and the Dept of Pediatrics in May 2008. Dr. Gorter has training in rehabilitation medicine with a special interest in paediatric rehabilitation.  He has a breadth of experience working in the Netherlands facilitating the use of evidence-based measures by physicians and therapists. His research interests include function and fitness to enhance participation of children and youth with developmental disabilities and facilitating transition to adulthood. The three main research themes are Family, Function and Fitness (for more information see www.netchild.nl). He was founder and chair of the Dutch Academy of Childhood Disability (2005). Up to March 2008 he was the coordinator of the second paediatric research programme "Learn to Move".

Dr. Steven Hanna, (905) 525-9140 ext. 27851
Dr. Steven Hanna is Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and in the School of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University. He has a background in social psychology and biostatistics. His research interests in biostatistics include the design and analysis of longitudinal studies, latent variable models, multilevel models, and the analysis of observational studies.  In the area of childhood disability and rehabilitation, he has been involved in research about motor development among children with cerebral palsy, social aspects of childhood disability, acquired brain injury, and clinical measurement.

Dr. Marilyn Kertoy, (519) 661-2111 ext. 88955
Dr. Marilyn Kertoy, is a faculty member and child language specialist in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Faculty of Health Sciences, at the University of Western Ontario. Her current teaching interests include the preparation of future speech language pathologists in working with children 0-3 years with chronic health concerns while her research interests include the study of early communication in infants, toddlers and preschoolers at risk for communication disorders and the relationship of memory and information processing to language. Her contributions to CanChild include consulting on issues related to communication development and conducting research on family centred functional approaches to care and on child and family influences on participation by children with physical disabilities.

Dr. Anne Klassen, 905-521-2100 ext. 73775
Associate Professor with the Department of Pediatrics and Associate Member of the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Dr. Klassen obtained her DPhil from the University of Oxford in 1997 and BA from the University of Waterloo in 1989. Her research focuses on developing, validating and using patient-reported outcome measures to assess health and well-being in clinical and population-based studies. This research has involved studies of adults (cosmetic and reconstructive surgery patients), children (NICU graduates, ADHD, cancer) and informal family caregivers (NICU, cancer). Another focus is developing conceptual frameworks and performance indicators for use by planners, managers, providers, and researchers to track from a health system perspective, how well services are delivered, and what relationships exist between key process variables and patient and family outcomes. This research is specific to children with disabilities and children with cancer.

Dr. Robert Palisano, (215) 762-1006
Dr. Robert Palisano is Professor, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA and Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Science, McMaster University. He is an experienced pediatric physical therapist, educator, and researcher. His research activities at CanChild include the Gross Motor Function Classification System; creation of gross motor function growth curves for children and adolescents with cerebral palsy; and quality of life, mobility, and exercise in adolescents with cerebral palsy. He is Co-Editor of the journal Physical & Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics and Associate Editor of the textbook Physical Therapy for Children.

Dr. Theresa (Terry) M. Petrenchik
Theresa (Terry) Petrenchik is Assistant Clinical Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University and a McMaster Poverty Initiative research affiliate. She is an occupational therapist with postdoctoral training in applied research in child health, disability, and participation as well as community-based research with marginalized and vulnerable populations. Her CanChild related expertise includes childhood disability in the context of poverty with an emphasis on social determinates of health, the ecology of out of school time participation (activity based and social) for vulnerable children and youth, and the interplay among out of school time participation, activity settings, and developmental health for children with developmental conditions. Terry is also an active independent consultant for a variety of not for profit and government agencies providing services and supports to vulnerable populations, including children/youth living in poverty.

Nancy Pollock, (905) 525-9140 ext. 27812
Nancy Pollock is an Associate Clinical Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Science, McMaster University. As a practicing occupational therapist, Nancy also brings that important perspective to CanChild. Her research includes studies of occupational performance in children, facilitation of goal setting in young children, intervention models for children with developmental and learning difficulties and best practice in school-based occupational therapy.

Dr. Dianne Russell, (905) 525-9140 ext. 27853
Dianne has a background in kinesiology and advanced training in research methodology. She is an Associate Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University. Dianne has been a key individual in the development, evaluation and dissemination of clinical outcome measures such as the Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM). Dianne has been an investigator on several measurement and evaluation studies and on the development of a number of multi-media teaching tools for service providers. She has a keen interest in the area of knowledge translation and how research findings can be used effectively in clinical practice and policy decision-making.

Debra Stewart, (905) 525-9140 ext. 27803
Debra Stewart has a background in occupational therapy and graduate training in health research. Her primary research activities are related to the transition to adulthood for youth with disabilities. She was the Project Coordinator at CanChild for "The KIT: Keeping it Together™", and the principal investigator for "The KIT: Keeping it Together™ for Youth" Project, the development of best practice guidelines for the transition to adulthood, and a Canada-wide study about the transition to adulthood for youth with disabilities. Debra has also conducted research about the use of the International Classification of Function, Disability and Health by occupational therapists. Debra is an Associate Professor in the Occupational Therapy program of the School of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University.

Dr. Stephen Walter, (905) 525-9140 ext. 22338
Dr. Stephen Walter is a Professor in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McMaster University. His epidemiology research has focused on chronic disease etiology, disease and developmental screening, musculo skeletal disorders, and the development of associated biostatistical methodology. Stephen is involved in studies of family-centred functional programs at OACRS centres, the development of a database classification system for gross motor disability, the motor development of children with Down syndrome and the creation of motor growth curves for children with cerebral palsy.

Dr. Virginia Wright, (416) 424-3824
Virginia Wright is a physiotherapist with graduate training in health research. She is a Scientist in the Bloorview Research Institute in Toronto. She completed her PhD at McMaster University in Health Research Methodology. She is supported by a Career Development Award (2007 to 2011) through the Canadian Child Health Clinician Scientist Program, a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Strategic Training Initiative. Her primary research interests are in the design and validation of outcome measures for children with physical disabilities, evaluation of change within the context of the ICF, and in promoting use of these measures both clinically and in research to evaluate the effects of rehabilitation interventions.