News

Children & Youth with Disabilities Lab

  • Nearly $5M grant to establish children’s environmental health research center at Oregon State

    January 26, 2022

    Nearly $5M grant to establish children’s environmental health research center at Oregon State

    The purpose of this grant is to reduce children’s exposure to harmful environmental factors and improve their health and well-being.

  • Schools Need to Urgently Prioritize the Physical Health of Students

    December 23, 2021

    Commentary: Schools Need to Urgently Prioritize the Physical Health of Students

    During the height of the pandemic we learned deaths from COVID-19 are highly correlated with obesity. Sadly children have not been spared - children with COVID-19 who are obese are hospitalized at three times the rate compared to their normal weight peers.

  • Practicing Disability Justice in an Under-Vaccinated Nation.

    August 25, 2021

    The Fight isn’t Over, Keep Going.

    Practicing Disability Justice in an Under-Vaccinated Nation.

  • Why Physical Education Can’t Be a Casualty of the Pandemic

    June 17, 2021

    Why Physical Education Can’t Be a Casualty of the Pandemic

    Physical education provides a range of benefits to children; the fact that it’s been sidelined during school phase-back plans is a tragedy.

  • Youth with autism see sharp decline in physical activity between ages 9-13, OSU study finds

    February 1, 2021

    Youth with autism see sharp decline in physical activity between ages 9-13, OSU study finds

    To best help kids with autism maintain healthy rates of physical activity, interventions should be targeted during the ages of 9 to 13, when kids show the biggest drop in active time.

  • Fullbright semi-finalist

    January 27, 2019

    Fullbright semi-finalist

    Undergraduate research student, Greg Heinonen, has been recommended as a semi-finalist in the Fulbright U.S. Student program. "The project that I've proposed will be the evaluation of a preventative intervention to promote the mental health and well-being of newly arrived refugees to Denmark." If funded, Greg's aim will be to examine factors of Danish school and welfare systems that promote or inhibit the success of the intervention.

  • Creating a culture of health

    October 25, 2018

    Creating a culture of health

    Kathleen McCarty, a kinesiology doctoral student in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences, has been inducted into the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health Policy Research Scholars program.

  • Undergraduate Researcher Awarded at National Conference

    February 12, 2018

    Undergraduate Researcher Awarded at National Conference

    Health promotion and health behavior and Honors College senior Gregory Heinonen's poster titled, "Examining the relationship between parent and child health in young children with developmental disabilities," co-authored by kinesiology Professor Megan MacDonald, was given the American Public Health Association (APHA) 2018 Student Poster Session Award. Congratulations, Greg!

  • Furry friends find a new role

    January 8, 2018

    Furry friends find a new role

    They’re said to be man’s best friend and now, four-legged friends of families with a developmentally disabled child are being trained to take on a new, important role. Dogs who complete the Do as I Do (DAID) project become imitation trainers for their human children with the goal of improving physical activity and social well-being in the child.

  • Autism in motion

    May 30, 2017

    Autism in motion

    Children with autism are often clumsy, physically awkward or uncoordinated. This understudied and nearly ubiquitous feature has researchers contemplating a new idea: Could motor problems be one source of autism’s social difficulties?

  • Fine and Gross Motor Skills: Interview with Megan MacDonald, Ph.D

    November 11, 2016

    Fine and Gross Motor Skills: Interview with Megan MacDonald, Ph.D

    Megan MacDonald, Ph.D was involved in a study that found that preschoolers with better fine and gross motor skill development will have improved social behavior and executive function. Megan joins us today to talk about the study, it's findings, and the implications for teachers.

  • Preschoolers’ motor skill development connected to school readiness

    October 12, 2016

    Preschoolers’ motor skill development connected to school readiness

    Fine and gross motor skill development is indicative of later performance on two key measures of kindergarten readiness.