Home/Topic Collection: Disability and Development in Early Childhood

Topic Collection: Disability and Development in Early Childhood

Disability and Development in Early Childhood

Disability in early childhood affects cognitive, physical, and sensory abilities and early detection and interventions are key to optimal outcomes and promoting equality. The Sustainable Development Goal 4 emphasizes monitoring developmental progress to ensure access to quality early childhood development. Data highlights significant prevalence of developmental disabilities in low-income countries, underscoring the urgent need for support systems and societal inclusion. This Topic Collection aims to illuminate the global scope of the issue and to chart potential future directions. Submissions: Open until 3rd March 2025

Guest Editors

Bolajoko O. Olusanya, MBBS, FMCPaed, FRCPCH, PhD Centre for Healthy Start Initiative Lagos, Nigeria ORCID logoorcid.org/0000-0002-3826-0583 Olaf Kraus de Camargo, MD, FRCPC McMaster University Ontario, Canada ORCID logoorcid.org/0000-0002-7927-7189
Melissa Gladstone MBChB, BSc, MRCP, FRCPCH, MD, DipND University of Liverpool Liverpool, UK ORCID logoorcid.org/0000-0002-2579-9301 Sheffali Gulati, FRCPCH (UK), FAMS, FIAP, FIMSA, FNASc, FIANS All India Institute Of Medical Sciences Delhi, India ORCID logoorcid.org/0000-0003-1439-9959
Disability in early childhood refers to conditions that hinder living and learning abilities of affected children, spanning cognitive, physical, gross motor, fine motor, sensory, speech and language impairments. Children under five serve as critical indicators of the nation's development trajectory. Investments in early detection and intervention services are therefore necessary for promoting equity, equality, diversity, and inclusion, ensuring optimal developmental outcomes to mitigate future costs in education, healthcare, and social services. The Sustainable Development Goal 4, mandates routine monitoring of the proportion of children under five who are not developmentally on track in health, learning, and psychosocial well-being, aiming to ensure access to quality early childhood development and address health inequalities. Available data underscores a significant prevalence of developmental disabilities in this age-group, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, where disabled children often endure rejection, neglect, and abuse. This underscores the pressing need for intervention and support systems. Moreover, families face societal stigma and exclusion, exacerbating the challenges faced by disabled children and contributing to family breakdowns.  This Topic Collection welcomes original papers, research letters, viewpoints and review articles and aims to illuminate the global scope of the issue, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, and to chart potential future directions to address the following pressing challenges:
  • Screening and surveillance for developmental disabilities in at-risk populations – systems and implementation of child surveillance that includes early identification of children with developmental disabilities 
  • Follow up systems for identifying children with developmental disabilities in high risk populations including those in neonatal care.
  • Use of ECD platforms to support and include children with developmental disabilities. 
  • The impacts of developmental disabilities on the affected children and their families.
  • The existing avenues for safeguarding the rights of diverse populations of children with disabilities across different cultures.
  • Societal attitudes toward and support for children with developmental disabilities.
  • Services aimed at preventing stigma and fostering inclusion for families and young children with developmental disabilities.
  • Accessibility and efficacy of family support and counselling services. 
  • Accessibility, acceptability, and uptake of available services.
  • Challenges experienced by disability service providers or professionals and the effectiveness of factors aimed at overcoming them.
  • Funding mechanisms and the affordability of available services.
  • Interventions that aim in optimising children’s development, participation and quality of life
Please see the instructions for authors for submission requirements for each article type. To submit your article, please follow these instructions and select ‘Disability and Development in Early Childhood’ as the Topic Collection.   Please visit our author hub for more information about the benefits of submitting to a Topic Collection. All submitted articles will be subject to the journal's normal peer review process. The Editor in Chief is responsible for the content of this Topic Collection. Guest Editors will manage peer review, invite reviewers and make a recommendation, but the final decision on all manuscripts will be made by the Editor-in-Chief. Articles accepted for publication will be published upon acceptance. Visit our author hub for more information regarding the publication process for topic collections.  Authors submitting to this Topic Collection are entitled to a 25% discount on the Article Processing Charge.  Discount is available upon request to info.bmjpo@bmj.com. A number of institutions have an open access agreement with BMJ where the full cost of publishing can be covered; please view the list of institutions to which this applies. BMJ also offers full waivers for authors based in low income countries; please see further information on our waivers and discounts policy. For any inquiries regarding this topic collection, please contact topic.collections@bmj.com