Participation in authentic research in the field and online through Community and Citizen Science (CCS) has shown to bring learning benefits to volunteers. In online CCS, available platforms present distinct features, ranging from scaffolding the process of data collection, to supporting data analysis and enabling volunteers to initiate their own…

Indigenous young people in Canada are disproportionately overrepresented in suicide rates and alarmingly, young children are accounted for in these disparities. Since children spend much of their day at school, schools are a vital context for suicide prevention, identification, and intervention. However, research indicates that educators often…

Schools are accountable for providing all students a safe and caring learning environment. When a child feels unsafe at school, personal relationships, mental health, and academics are negatively affected. The entire school community -- staff, parents, and students -- must work together to develop an effective safe school program. A carefully…

Purpose: To establish a consensus on the complexity of 16 fundamental movement skills (FMS). Initially, complexity was defined as how difficult it would be to teach FMS to children and for the children to learn them. Method: The study was conducted using a modified Delphi method and a mobile application called Move Improve® to showcase video…

Psychiatric disorders are common in youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This is a vulnerable group of children whose behavioural problems often have more complicated care needs than other children, which can place a great deal of stress on their families. However, the association of family mental health issues, level of…

Mental health problems are prevalent in autistic youth, but the underpinning mechanisms are not well explored. In neurotypical youth, stressful life events are an established risk factor for mental health problems. This study tested longitudinal bidirectional associations between family-level stressful life events and mental health problems and…

The focus of this article is understanding the perceptions that Canadian Indigenous teachers and students have on a novel physical activity teaching method that is utilised in the classroom. We explore the role that physical activity plays in the healthy growth and development of children, with special attention to Indigenous children. Through…

The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed unprecedented service interruptions in many sectors including services for children and youth with neuro-developmental disabilities (NDD). We examined the experiences of service providers as they supported this population during the pandemic. Five focus groups were convened with 24 service providers offering…

Introduction: Challenging behaviors are common in individuals with developmental disabilities and pose significant challenges to their well-being and that of their families and communities. Method: We explored the occurrence and predictors of self-injurious behavior and aggressive/destructive behavior in 372 Canadian youths (aged 4-20 years) with…

Indigenous Knowledge Systems and their underlying ethical qualities guide social interaction and the process by which Indigenous children learn what it means to be a person within family and community life. Using the Learning by Observing and Pitching In (LOPI) framework as a starting point, this paper explores a case study of a death in the…

A rich home literacy environment (HLE) fosters students' academic achievement. However, the link between HLE and children's reading comprehension is unclear. This study examined the effects of HLE factors on children's reading comprehension through a meta-analysis of 59 studies conducted between 1998 and 2018. Results of the meta-analysis…

Developmental research during COVID-19 suggests that pandemic-related disruptions in family relationships are associated with children's mental health. Most of this research has focused on 1 child per family, thereby obfuscating patterns that are differentially operative at the family-wide (i.e., between-family) versus child-specific (i.e.,…

Children and youth diagnosed with developmental disabilities (DD) are at a higher risk for mental health concerns (e.g., anxiety) and physical health issues (e.g., obesity) when compared to their typically developing counterparts. An intervention that may be able to mitigate and even prevent these issues is physical activity (PA); however, despite…

Background: Outdoor learning offers clear physical, cognitive, social-emotional and academic benefits for children and yet, it is considered a grassroots approach to teaching and learning in elementary schools. Purpose: We examined teachers' perspectives on barriers and supports for outdoor learning in public elementary schools. Methods:…

Using distributive justice theory as a framework, the purpose of the present mixed methods study was to determine whether parental differential treatment was present and if so, to what degree, in families of children with a developmental disability. Moreover, if present, we examined to what extent parental differential treatment impacted family…