Special Needs

Articles

In February 2025, a medical team at UCSF delivered the first personalized CRISPR therapy to an infant...few years. But the infrastructure being built right now, including the research centers, clinical trials, and specialized expertise at major children's...

...attention at the exact moment their world is being restructured around them. Research shows that 84% of adult siblings of childhood cancer survivors report family...because parents don't care, but because the child in treatment has immediate medical needs that consume available attention. A sibling who was getting help...

...can open doors you didn't know existed. A specific genetic diagnosis may qualify your child for clinical trials testing new therapies. It can guide medical monitoring for related health issues that appear with certain genetic conditions. And if a genetic variant is identified, siblings and future pregnancies...

...The gap reflects where research dollars go, and understanding...it. How NIH Allocates Research Funding. The National...decision-making process. Autism research receives approximately...advocacy infrastructure than medical need. Within each condition's...lifespan or adulthood research. The rest funded early...decisions. If you think of research funding as a household...

...been told there's no approved treatment yet, but research is happening. Either way, you're trying to figure...trial phases mean for your child, where the major research is concentrated by condition, and which questions...cerebral palsy, Down syndrome. The database uses medical terminology, so if your initial search returns...

...a valid search for something the medical system doesn't provide: peer experience....doesn't provide: peer experience. Research in neuroscience suggests that connecting...free. They're backed by decades of research showing reduced parental stress, improved...challenges. That parent doesn't give you medical advice. They tell you what worked,...

...families who care for someone with a disability, chronic illness, or complex medical needs. The goal is straightforward: give primary caregivers time to rest,...protects family stability, and keeps parents functional over the long term. Research on family caregiving consistently...

...experience depression and anxiety than their peers without disabilities. The research is consistent: 67.1% experience anxiety, depression, or social-emotional...changes. Then add disability-specific layers: chronic pain, social isolation, medical trauma from repeated procedures, awareness of difference, restricted independence,...

...common challenges parents face, and one of the most frequently dismissed by medical providers. The tools clinicians use to assess pain in verbal children don't...for exactly this situation. They're used in hospitals, pain clinics, and research settings to assess pain in children who can't self-report. Most parents...

...makes insurance coverage and school accommodations harder to secure. But research from UCSF's Sensory Neurodevelopment and Autism Program has given SPD something...isn't behavior. It's neurology. What the Brain Scans Show. In 2013, UCSF researchers used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), a type of MRI that tracks how water...

...conditions that parents and even clinicians often treat as separate. A 2024 meta-analysis published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience confirmed what researchers have suspected for years: executive function delay is transdiagnostic. It appears across ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, and specific learning...

...they never use because they won't ask for them. Your young adult attends medical appointments but can't explain their diagnosis to a new doctor. Self-advocacy...with you coaching from the sidelines instead of leading the conversation. Research from the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition shows that...