Dear Colleagues
The 30th EACD2018 conference in Tbilisi has finished. We think it was quite successful. Numbers are very impressive-5 continents, 45 countries and more than 500 participants.
The slogan of the conference was ‘Together We are Stronger’ and the meeting served as a platform for exchanging international knowledge and experience of all aspects of childhood disability and helped to spread these throughout the South Caucasian region and beyond. Participants from all neighbouring countries discussed ideas for developing standardized approaches to disability.
The committee suggested an open list of topics for free communications including epidemiology, screening and evaluation tools, study designs, outcome measures, integration of research and clinical practice, and best practice protocols – favoring the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health model. Topics also comprise social inclusion and participation, quality of life, family-centered care, nutrition, socio-economic and socio-cultural factors, coping with disabilities in resource poor countries, neurogenetics, epigenetics, multiple disabilities, ethical issues, innovations in technology, robotics, orthotics, surgery, interdisciplinarity, alternative versus conventional traditional treatment approaches, education, and service organization. As well as pain management, palliative care, mental health, sleep, epilepsy, motor control, hand function, mobility, gait, spasticity, dystonia, ataxia, bone health, feeding, intellectual disability, communication, vision, and hearing. The programme addressed a wide range of neurodevelopmental conditions.
The format of keynote lectures was new and interesting, including keynote speakers and discussants for highlighting debatable topics. The discussants include not only professional specialists, but also parents and decision makers. Topics were devoted to evidence-based approaches, new treatments, neuroplacticity, and changing the mode of thinking about childhood disability.
The International Alliance of Academies of Childhood Disability prepared an interactive two days teaching programme with regional stakeholders, parents and team members.
We hope such a diverse spectrum of presentations made the conference very exciting and interactive. Also it gave possibility for informal communication and networking between participants from different parts of Europe and people with different professions.
On behalf of organizing committee.
Nana Tatishvili
President of the EACD2018 Conference
Please visit the conference web page
To relive the best moments of the meeting visit photo gallery.
EACD meeting in Tbilisi. Day 1
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Main keynote lectures have been recorded during the conference:
Early childhood Intervention in Georgia (film)
Peter Rosenbaum: How our thinking is changing in 21st century
Federico Vigevano: Cognition and behaviour in epilepsy
Diane Damiano: Evidence-based physiotherapy for children with cerebral palsy
Roslyn Boyd: Enhancing participation for children with cerebral palsy: a paradigm shift
Tamar Seperteladze: Parents point of view
Hans Forssberg: Microbiota and brain development: Implications for autism spectrum disorder
Giovanni Cioni: Neuroplasticity - the present and the future
Abstracts
Abstracts of the 30th Annual Meeting of the European Academy of Childhood Disability (EACD), Tbilisi, Georgia, 28–31 May 2018 are available in the Supplemental Issue of the Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology (2018, Volume 60 Issue S2).