Neurological and Developmental Disorders in Children: Rehabilitation and Care

Dear Colleagues,

As we progress through the early 21^st century, there has been a coalescing of efforts to both improve and enhance how we approach the understanding and subsequent care of children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental and neurologically acquired challenges. This has taken place within a framework of regularly increasing knowledge about the pathways by which these disorders occur and unfold developmentally, and how individuals experiencing these challenges can be best supported, to provide greater opportunity for improvements in their outcomes across time. As we come to take a person-first orientation more effectively, where we strive to engage with the intersectional identities of persons with neurological and developmental disabilities, it has become even more important globally to consider how approaches to treatment, rehabilitation, and ongoing supportive and proscriptive care foster effective lives, and to experience more complete integration within the community necessary to allow such opportunities.

We are at a point of important reflection, where we can, as researchers and clinicians, actively step back and assess where we have come to, and where we can go, through collaboration with families, individuals with these disabilities, educators, and systems within the communities these individuals all live in, determine how to best continue to make strong progress in assessment and diagnosis, development of interventions and rehabilitation approaches, and promote effective integration into broader life experiences for impacted youth. We can assess well where intervention may save lives, improve developmental options, and promote growth. This will guide the next steps towards even stronger approaches to medical and biopsychosocial interventions that may more directly limit negative outcomes, as well as inform the next generation of researchers and clinicians in their efforts to intervene.

With this Special Issue, it is desired that we fully consider where, across a diverse world, efforts towards effectively treating the consequences of neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders have come to sit, and to assess how we can improve and enhance these interventions. Considering pharmacological, rehabilitative, psychotherapeutic, educational, and social interventions for the significant set of challenges that impact childhood and adolescence, and movement into adulthood, is key to this approach. As such, we invite papers from clinical scientists, social scientists, educational and policy researchers, and public advocates regarding neurological and neurodevelopmental disability to explore this critical area. Emphases on intervention trials to address cognitive, behavioral, social, and physical development are encouraged, as well as critical reviews and analyses regarding how to best translate ongoing research into rehabilitative, educational, and biopsychosocial supports and treatments for impacted youth.

The editors of this Special Issue look forward to reviewing your submissions for consideration. We seek to present a diverse, multidimensional conversation about the state of science and health interventions for this important population.

Dr. Scott J. Hunter
Dr. Megan N. Scott
Guest Editors

Dr. Mary J. Lee
Guest Editor Assistant

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• neurodevelopmental disorders
• neurological disorders
• pediatric neurorehabilitation
• early intervention
• pediatric care