Another Pre Season 6 episode - we catch up with the team from Oceania 2026! Oceania Academy Biennial Conference will be held in Hobart, Tasmania, 4-7 March 2026.

Keynote Speakers:

John Coughlan: Secretary General of the International Cerebral Palsy Society and Cerebral Palsy Europe, and the parent of a young adult with cerebral palsy.

Melissa McCradden is the Artificial Intelligence Director and Deputy Research Director with the Women's and Children's Health Network, and a Deputy Director and The Hospital Research Foundation Group Fellow at the Australian Institute for Machine Learning at the University of Adelaide.

Dr Lynne McKinlay is a medical leader at Sunshine Coast Health with responsibility for patient safety and clinical governance.

Riley Saban is an Australian disability advocate, entrepreneur, and international keynote speaker whose work centres on inclusive design, assistive technology, and systemic reform.

Dr Jennifer Ryan is Director of Cerebral Palsy Lifespan Health and Well-being (CP-Life) Research Centre and an Associate Professor in the School of Physiotherapy at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland

Scientia Professor Julian Trollor AM FAHMS, NHMRC Leadership Fellow, Director of the National Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Disability Health at UNSW Sydney.

Dr Ilisapeci Tuibeqa and Professor Susan Woolfenden: Presidential Address

Adj Prof Sarah McIntyre: Dinah Reddihough Oration

The ResearchWorks team including Dayna, Ash and Ed will be on site to provide live interviews with Keynote speakers and other incredible researchers.

If you haven't registered yet - there is still time to register, book your accommodation for Hobart (a wonderful location in Australia) and join in-person and there is also a hybrid option for those unable to travel.

https://www.oceaniaacademy.org/conference-2

If you are attending, be sure to pop by the ResearchWorks booth and say hello! We'd love to meet you and we can't wait to bring you exclusive interviews with some of the finest researchers on the planet!

Be sure to check out the ResearchWorks Academy at www.researchworks.academy (its FREE to register).

From AI and Machine Learning based tools, to Gait analysis tools, to report templates, decision trees, custom calculators for GMFMER/ENE and Goal Attainment Scale, Gesture and Switch based video games and other multimedia, it's a one-stop-shop for tools to implement research into clinical practice!

The ResearchWorks Academy is a completely FREE online hub - with resources for clinicians and researchers. Visit www.researchworks.academy

for a video guide to this week's special episode, be sure to visit our YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XCdovk0ZZU

From using AI with curated articles, to classification tools, outcome measures, machine learning based 2D gait analysis, augmented reality video games, GMFMER and ENE calculator as well as a goal attainment scale calculator, AI driven report templates and other multimedia - it's been designed as a one stop shop for evidence based practice.

Updates are provided every month and it's all accessible via the web (desktop or mobile) for FREE!

In addition, we will have a range of micro-credentialing courses (paid and free) by world renowned researchers, lecturers and speakers!

If you have any queries or suggestions, be sure to get in contact with the ResearchWorks Academy team - and we'll see how we can assist you to implement the latest in evidence and research into your clinical practice!

www.researchworks.academy

It's our final regular season episode of 2025!

We hope you've enjoyed Season 5 of the ResearchWorks Podcast. From EACD to AACPDM, the conference video and interview series, our DMI and CME special, to the launch of the ResearchWorks Academy - 2025 has been the biggest year yet for the pod!

In 2026, we plan to bring you even more of the latest research from conferences from across the globe, with our partnerships with EACD, AACPDM and AusACPDM (now known as the OCEANIA Academy). We are working with international partners across the globe to bring you the very latest breakthroughs in research and evidence.

The ResearchWorks Academy will continue to be free and open access and soon with a premium range of micro credentialing courses from renowned lecturers, teachers, researchers and academics - providing the very latest in research and evidence in a practical format to enhance your practice.

Enjoy our look back at 2025 and we wish all of our listeners (and viewers!) happy holidays over the festive breaks and we look forward to a bigger and better 2026 ahead!

www.researchworks.academy

BMJ Paediatrics Open - Dr Olaf Kraus de Camargo

“When challenges exist, children and families may benefit from supports that are tailored to their individual strengths and support needs, irrespective of whether or not a child has one or more diagnosed condition(s).”

Strengths-based and client-centred approaches in the field of childhood disability have been proposed in healthcare for decades, but in many places in the world, our service structures and therapeutic endeavours still are directed at fixing/compensating deficits in a prescriptive way. In the field of child developmental (disability) services, we have recently seen the publication of Canadian and Australian policies and frameworks that explicitly endorse this strengths-based approach, recommending in particular the use of the F-words for Child Development first published by CanChild scientists Peter Rosenbaum and Jan Willem Gorter in 2012.

This commentary reflects on how strength-based approaches and client-centred care, developed over the last 50 years, have culminated in a paradigm shift in how we define and promote ‘health’.

https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/9/1/e003418

A shorter than usual episode about the future of the pod - 2026 and beyond.

We will be continuing our support of the Oceania (formerly AusACPDM) conference, the EACD conference and the AACPDM conference in 2026 with in-person, on-site, live broadcasts from Australia, Europe and the Americas!

2025 has also seen the team behind the pod launch the ResearchWorks Academy - an entirely FREE online portal for clinicians and researchers, designed to be a one-stop site for all your clinical application needs. You can register today for full access.

From AI and ML driven toolsets, to reports, templates, flowcharts, decision trees, outcome measures and more - we are aiming to empower clinicians across the globe with the tools needed to implement evidence based practices. Let us know if you have any suggestions for the site and how we can continue to develop the resources available.

On demand courses will also soon launch - we are working with international partners from across the ResearchWorks network to provide the very latest information, courses and educational tools too, so stay tuned!

Visit www.researchworks.academy

In 2024, a landmark review of the School Education Act 1999 was undertaken in Western Australia. Why? Because our education laws — drafted over 25 years ago — haven’t kept pace with modern understandings of disability, inclusion, or the rights of children and families.

This review, driven by an expert panel with deep experience in education, disability, and human rights, was driven by one clear question: Does our law support every child to access and thrive in school — or are there too many barriers to access and inclusion for students with disability?

What followed was an in-depth consultation with families, clinicians, educators, and young people with lived experience, resulting in 15 recommendations that aim to remove barriers — from enrollment gatekeeping, to inconsistent support, to exclusionary discipline, replacing them with legal obligations for inclusion, voice, and access.

For allied health clinicians, this matters. Because so often, we’re working with children whose ability to engage in school is shaped by systems, not just skills. Today, we unpack what this report means — and what could change if we get this right.

Early mobility and crawling: beliefs and practices of Pediatric Physical Therapists in the United States.

Kari S Kretch Stacey C Dusing, Regina T Harbourne, Lin-Ya Hsu, Barbara A Sargent, Sandra L Willett

• PMID: 38127897
• PMCID: PMC10873088
• DOI: 10.1097/PEP.0000000000001063

Abstract

Purpose: To characterize beliefs of pediatric physical therapists (PTs) in the United States regarding the role of crawling in infant development and clinical practice.

Methods: Pediatric PTs reported their beliefs about early mobility and crawling, clinical approaches related to early mobility and crawling, and agreement with the removal of crawling from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s updated developmental milestone checklists in an online survey. Analyses examined associations between information sources and beliefs, between beliefs and clinical approaches, and between beliefs and CDC update opinions.

Results: Most participants believed that crawling was important (92%) and linked to a variety of positive developmental outcomes (71%-99%) and disagreed with its removal from the CDC checklists (79%). Beliefs were linked with clinical approaches focused on promoting crawling and discouraging other forms of mobility.

Conclusions: Further research is needed to determine whether pediatric PTs' beliefs and clinical practices are supported by evidence.

AACPDM special: Effects of Power Training combined with interval treadmill training on walking capacity versus performance in real world settings in youth with cerebral palsy.

This paper is a contender for the AACPDM’s highest abstract honour - the Gayle G Arnold Award - to be presented at The American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine (AACPDM) Conference - the 79th Annual Meeting!

“Celebrating Resilience” October 15-18, 2025, to be held in New Orleans, LA.