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Global leadership is needed to optimize early childhood development for children with disabilities

Nature Medicine volume 29, pages 1056–1060 (2023)Cite this article

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UNICEF and other international bodies must produce a clear plan that prioritizes development and education for children with disabilities, especially in low- and middle-income settings, as required for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the research team at the Center for Healthy Start Initiative for the administrative support for this work. The views expressed in the paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official positions of their institutions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Healthy Start Initiative, Lagos, Nigeria

    Bolajoko O. Olusanya

  2. Center of Excellence & Advanced Research on Childhood Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Child Neurology Division, Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

    Sheffali Gulati

  3. UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Brad D. Berman

  4. Department of Pediatrics, Division of Developmental Neurology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Mijna Hadders-Algra

  5. Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Mijna Hadders-Algra

  6. Virtual Academic Unit, Children’s Directorate, Northampton General Hospital, Northampton, UK

    Andrew N. Williams

  7. International Centre for Evidence in Disability, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK

    Tracey Smythe

  8. Division of Physiotherapy, Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa

    Tracey Smythe

  9. Department of Population Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Selangor, Malaysia

    Nem Yun Boo

  10. Department of Physiotherapy, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan

    Nihad Almasri

  11. Illinois College of Optometry, Chicago, IL, USA

    Sandra S. Block

  12. Center for Healthy Development, Seattle, WA, USA

    Cecilia Breinbauer

  13. School of Public Health, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Sally Brinkman

  14. Department of Pediatrics, Life Sciences Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Vivian G. Cheung

  15. Vision and Eye Research Institute, Faculty of Medical Science, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK

    Adrian C. Davis

  16. Department of Population Health Science, London School of Economics, London, UK

    Adrian C. Davis

  17. European Network of Occupational Therapy in Higher Education, Escola Superior de Saúde do Alcoitão, Alcabideche, Portugal

    Marta Figueiredo

  18. Faculty of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Lidia B. Giúdici

  19. Women and Children’s Health, Institute of Translational Medicine, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Melissa J. Gladstone

  20. Department of Pediatrics, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

    Toby M. Long

  21. School of Education, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    Paul Lynch

  22. National University of Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia

    Marisol Moreno-Angarita

  23. NIMS-SPECTRUM-Child Development Research Centre, NIMS Medicity, Thiruvananthapuram, India

    M. K. C. Nair

  24. Translational Health Research Institute, School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia

    Felix A. Ogbo

  25. Centre for Healthy Start Initiative, Lagos, Nigeria

    Jacob O. Olusanya

  26. Department of Child and Adolescent Health, University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica

    Maureen E. Samms-Vaughan

  27. Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA

    Donald Wertlieb

  28. Division of General Internal Medicine, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Scott M. Wright

Authors
  1. Bolajoko O. Olusanya
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  2. Sheffali Gulati
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  3. Brad D. Berman
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  4. Mijna Hadders-Algra
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  5. Andrew N. Williams
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  6. Tracey Smythe
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  7. Nem Yun Boo
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Consortia

Global Research on Developmental Disabilities Collaborators (GRDDC)

  • Nihad Almasri
  • , Sandra S. Block
  • , Cecilia Breinbauer
  • , Sally Brinkman
  • , Vivian G. Cheung
  • , Adrian C. Davis
  • , Marta Figueiredo
  • , Lidia B. Giúdici
  • , Melissa J. Gladstone
  • , Toby M. Long
  • , Paul Lynch
  • , Marisol Moreno-Angarita
  • , M. K. C. Nair
  • , Felix A. Ogbo
  • , Jacob O. Olusanya
  • , Maureen E. Samms-Vaughan
  • , Donald Wertlieb
  •  & Scott M. Wright

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bolajoko O. Olusanya.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Cite this article

Olusanya, B.O., Gulati, S., Berman, B.D. et al. Global leadership is needed to optimize early childhood development for children with disabilities. Nat Med 29, 1056–1060 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02291-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02291-x

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