Aid on Spreadsheets

Developmental disabilities in Uganda: Early detection and intervention

Developmental delay and disability (DDD) affect more than 100 million children worldwide; the majority living in low income settings and often failing to receive even basic education or health care. Recent findings in developmental neuroscience highlight the importance of an enriched, supportive and healthy environment in the first years of life for achieving one’s developmental potential; with children with DDD at high risk for poor outcomes. This project aims to make these children “visible” and to examine the extent to which they are excluded from participation in family and community activities, and to implement and evaluate intervention strategies addressing their unmet health and developmental needs. We will expand our collaborative studies with a Health and Demographic Surveillance System in Uganda by first exploring the epidemiology of all types of DDD in children ages 1-9 years using a three-stage screening process. Next, we will train a team of community and health workers for a controlled early intervention study on these children in collaboration with UNICEF. In addition, we will perform a 3-year longitudinal follow up of our previously identified cohort of children with cerebral palsy and design, execute and evaluate goal directed interventions. Critical knowledge gaps in global outcomes for children with DDD will be addressed through this project and successful interventions will be scaled up and disseminated to other nations by the UNICEF collaboration.

Project ID

SE-0-29-2017-05474-285-12182

Activity status

2 - Implementation

Aid type

D02 - Other technical assistance

% to Uganda

100.00

Organisations

Funding

Sweden

Implementing

Karolinska Institutet

Extending

None

CRS code	%
Medical research (12182)	100.0