Belonging is a basic human need. At school, this means feeling accepted, valued and cared for by teachers and peers....

Australian children with disability often communicate their feelings through their actions. However, they are mis-identified as having ‘behaviours of concern’ or ‘disruptive behaviours’....

The Victorian Department of Education is working with the Healthy Trajectories team at the University of Melbourne to carry out the 2026 Disability Inclusion Needs Survey....

This project's goal is to understand whether the survey is worded in ways that would support children in reporting their quality of life accurately. ...

Research on fathers of children with disabilities is limited, especially in Australia. The 'Dad-Care' project is a collaboration between Professor Nathan Grills, Health Trajectories and Melbourne Disability Institute to explore the experiences and role of fathers in caring for children with a disability....

Picture my Participation is an instrument designed to assess the participation attendance and participation involvement of children. ...

The family of Participation Related Constructs (fPRC) was published following a series of reviews and conceptual papers that explored the evidence for interventions that aimed to improve participation outcomes for those with child-onset disability....

This project will integrate knowledge from architecture, education and health to enable the co-design of learning spaces with people with disability. This will benefit all students' access and meaningful involvement in learning through the development of a framework for designing inclusive learning spaces....

Our overarching objective is improved care and health outcomes for children with medically complex cerebral palsy and their caregivers through improved health care processes and pathways....

Children with cerebral palsy (CP) are at risk of developing stiffness in the muscles of the wrist and hand, which can lead to loss of movement and make it hard for children to use their hands for activities. ...

Our knowledge about the mental health problems of children with developmental disabilities is largely based on parental report. There is a significant lack of child self-report. Although parents know a lot about their children, they do not know everything. ...

Young people with disability and complex communication needs (CCN) face barriers addressing their mental health concerns, which may be due to a lack of assessment tools for this population. ...

Mental health problems and participation restrictions are reported for children with disabilities relatively often....

ENVISAGE stands for ENabling VISions And Growing Expectations. This network of research has developed in partnership with parents, researchers and health professionals from across Australia and Canada. All ENVISAGE programs are developed using co-design through all phases of the research....

In this body of work, commissioned by the Department of Social Services in 2024, a new national best practice for Early Childhood Intervention was developed by a Consortium led by our Healthy Trajectories Director, Prof. Christine Imms....