SYNOPSIS
The WHO’s International Classification of Functioning (ICF) was published in 2001. Advocates in the field of developmental disability have been promoting its use as an integrated and strengths-based approach to our thinking, actions, and research. Building on the ICF framework, colleagues at CanChild Centre in Canada published a tongue-in-cheek paper entitled “The F-words in Childhood Disability: I swear this is how we should think”.

In this presentation Dr Rosenbaum will present the F-words and illustrate how we can reconceptualize what we can do in our clinical work and research with young people who have childhood-onset impairments, to move beyond our traditional preoccupation with the biomedical and to focus on child and family development. He will argue that the developmental and functional consequences of impairments, and the treatments that we offer, need to be seen as part of a broader approach to ‘being/belonging/becoming’.
SPEAKER
Peter Rosenbaum is a Professor of Paediatrics at McMaster University, where from 2001-14 he held a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair. In 1989 he co-founded CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research at McMaster. He has held more than 80 competitive research grants and is a contributing author to over 300 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. He has also been a guest lecturer in 25 countries.

Peter has been a supervisor or committee member with 50 masters and doctoral level students, including from the Universities of Oxford, Utrecht, Witwatersrand, and Toronto in addition to McMaster. Peter’s accomplishments have been recognized nationally and internationally, including the Ross Award from the Canadian Pediatric Society in 2000; an Honorary Doctor of Science, Université Laval (2005); was the first Canadian President of AACPDM (1996-98); and received the Academy’s Mentorship Award in 2007 and its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. In June 2015 he was the inaugural winner of the Holland Bloorview Medal of Excellence in Childhood Disability.