The Bloorview Research Institute (BRI) is recognized internationally for its leadership in childhood disability research, bringing together scientists, clinicians, and families to create meaningful impact for children and youth with developmental differences and disabilities. In addition to advancing discovery locally and globally, BRI is committed to fostering dialogue and collaboration that push the field forward.
The BRI Global Guest Speaker Series is a free monthly virtual event that invites leading international experts to share insights on childhood disability research, rehabilitation, and inclusion. Each talk creates opportunities for learning, collaboration, and exchange across disciplines, connecting researchers, clinicians, families, and community partners around the world.
Featured Speaker
Prof. Eva Loth, professor of cognitive neuroscience, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London
Date and Time
Tuesday, May 19, 2026, 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. ET
Talk Title
From Precision Medicine to Personalised Support for Neurodivergent People: New Conceptual and Methodological Directions
Talk Summary
Over a decade ago, recognition that an autism diagnosis alone cannot predict a particular autistic person’s developmental trajectory or support needs inspired the rise of Precision Medicine in psychiatry. In this talk, I will discuss progress, limitations and new directions based on findings from EU-AIMS and AIMS-2-TRIALS; two major European initiatives advancing precision approaches in autism. In the first phase, we created a set of longitudinal, multi-disciplinary studies spanning infancy to adulthood, developed new assessment tools for underserved populations (e.g., neurodivergent preschoolers) and methods that move beyond group averages toward individual prediction and subgroup identification. However, links between genetic, neural, cognitive, and clinical features remain modest, which may reflect complex many-to-many, nonlinear, and adaptive relationships.
In the second phase, autistic people became research advisors and collaborators, prompting a shift in research priorities (e.g., mental health, sensory sensitivities) as well as greater recognition of social, environmental, and experiential influences on development. Advancing a “developmental multi-systems framework”—where autistic and co-occurring traits emerge through dynamic interactions between biology, environment and experience across time—now requires a supportive transdisciplinary ecosystem. This begins with inclusive research practices that foster social legitimacy and trust, alongside technological advances that improve the reliability and scalability of measurement approaches. It also requires analytic frameworks capable of capturing complex dynamic interactions, and systems changes to enable feasible implementation of scientific advances into clinical, educational, and community settings.
About the Speaker
Eva Loth is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London. Her main interest is in understanding the dynamic interaction between social and biological mechanisms in social, cognitive and emotional development in autistic and neurodivergent people. She is the Deputy Lead of the AIMS-2-TRIALS consortium, which aims to develop precision medicine for autism to better predict a person’s developmental outcome and tailor support to individual profiles. She co-leads their biomarker work programme, which comprises a set of large-scale multi-disciplinary longitudinal cohorts spanning infants, preschoolers, adolescents and adults, with varying support needs. She is also the Principal Investigator of RESPECT4Neurodevelopment, a UKRI Network Plus that brings together bioengineers, physicists, psychologists, psychiatrists and families with lived experience to develop responsible, reliable, scalable, and personalised neuro-technologies for neurodivergent children. Finally, an emergent interest is in studying the interplay between social-environmental adversities and protective factors in neurodevelopment and mental health in low-and middle income countries. Here, the current focus is on children and young people who experience multiple poverty-related adversities in South Africa.
Questions about the series?
For any questions about the Global Guest Speaker Series, please email BRISpeakerSeries@hollandbloorview.ca.
Previous speakers
Supporting children with autism or other developmental disabilities in low-income contexts: insights from Ethiopia and Kenya
Featured Speaker
Prof. Rosa Hoekstra, professor of global autism and developmental disability research, King's College London
Date and Time
Tuesday, April 28, 2026, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. ET
Talk Title
Supporting children with autism or other developmental disabilities in low-income contexts: insights from Ethiopia and Kenya
Talk Summary
Families of children with autism and other developmental disabilities living in low-income contexts experience severe challenges, including stigma and discrimination, poverty and a lack of access to formal support and education. In this talk I will share insights from the SPARK project, an international research collaboration aiming to improve support for children with developmental disabilities in Ethiopia and Kenya.
In close collaboration with stakeholders, the SPARK team developed a Community Identification of Developmental Disabilities (CIDD) tool to improve detection of children with developmental disabilities and promote referral for further assessment and support. Families of children identified with the CIDD were subsequently invited to participate in a cluster randomised controlled trial testing the effectiveness of the Caregiver Skills Training programme, a low intensity intervention developed by the World Health Organization. I will share findings from research underpinning the SPARK project and emerging findings from the SPARK project itself.
About the Speaker
Rosa Hoekstra is Professor of Developmental Disabilities at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience. After finishing her PhD at the VU University in Amsterdam, she continued her autism research through a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Cambridge in the UK. Since 2009 she combines her research with teaching in the field of Psychology, first at The Open University (2009-2015) and now at King's College London (2015-present).
She aims to conduct high quality research that makes a difference to children with autism and other developmental disabilities and their families worldwide, paying particular attention to the world’s most vulnerable and underserved communities.
Together with Prof Amina Abubakar (Aga Khan University, Kenya) she co-leads the large SPARK project, aiming to improve support for children with developmental disabilities and their families in Ethiopia and Kenya.
From assistive technology to brain computer-interface (BCI): Innovations in learning and neurorehabilitation
Featured Speaker
Prof. Prabhat Ranjan, chairman (research, innovation and international relations) at Dr D Y Patil Pratishthan, Kolhapur, India
Date and Time
Tuesday, March 24, 2026, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. ET
Talk Title
From assistive technology to brain computer-interface (BCI): Innovations in learning and neurorehabilitation
Talk Summary
Over the past 15 years, there has been significant progress in Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology, supported by the increasingly easy and affordable availability of wireless neuroheadsets. This has helped move BCI beyond research laboratories and hospitals to a larger group of researchers and amateurs interested in using EEG signals in a variety of ways, including artistic applications. Wireless connectivity and real-time data processing, supported by open-source software, have further advanced the field by reducing physical restrictions on the person.
In this talk, Prof. Prabhat Ranjan will describe his early work on developing assistive technologies, including environment control systems designed around user requirements. He will then discuss his efforts since 2011 to use BCI to improve the quality of life of persons with disabilities. His research group is currently exploring applications in neurorehabilitation, identifying multiple intelligences among children to support learning and career choices, and improving learning capabilities in children with learning disabilities.
About the Speaker
Prof. Prabhat Ranjan is the Chairman (Research, Innovation and International Relations) at Dr D Y Patil Pratishthan, Kolhapur, India. He is the former and founding Vice Chancellor of D Y Patil International University (DYPIU) in Akurdi, Pune. He previously headed India’s technology think tank, TIFAC. A nuclear fusion scientist and futurist, he has become a distinguished figure in the field of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) and assistive technology in India.
He obtained his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1986 and completed his college education at IIT Kharagpur and the University of Delhi. His pioneering work in BCI began in 2011 at the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of ICT. Currently, his research team is exploring innovative BCI applications, including neurorehabilitation for disorders of consciousness, identifying multiple intelligences in children, and using neuroplasticity to help children with ADHD. His development of “Brain-CePal” has significantly improved the quality of life for individuals in a “locked-in” condition.
Turning research into real-world care in health and disability
Featured Speaker
Prof. Annette Boaz, professor of health and social care and director of the NIHR Policy Research Unit on the Health and Social Care Workforce, Kings College London, U.K.
Date and Time
Tuesday, February 24, 2026, 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. ET
Talk Title
Turning research into real-world care in health and disability
Talk Summary
Research has enormous potential to improve care and outcomes, yet it often fails to influence everyday practice and policy. This talk explores why that gap persists and how evidence can be more effectively embedded into routine decision-making through relationships, collaboration, and systems change. Drawing on recent work, the presentation highlights practical approaches to ensuring research makes a real difference across health and disability services, including those serving children and families.
About the Speaker
Annette Boaz is Professor of Health and Social Care and Director of the NIHR Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit at King’s College London. She leads a programme of research on the health and social care workforce and supports capacity strengthening in social care research. She has more than 25 years of experience in supporting the use of evidence across a range of policy domains. She has undertaken an international leadership role in promoting the use of evidence, including publishing a book on evidence use ‘What Works Now’ and co-leading Transforming Evidence with Kathryn Oliver.
Do we truly understand what 'intensity' means in the context of neurorehabilitation?
Featured Speaker
Prof. Hubertus van Hedel, PhD, PT, head of research, Swiss Children’s Rehab, University Children’s Hospital Zurich.
Date and Time
January 27, 2026, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. ET
Talk Title
Do we truly understand what 'intensity' means in the context of neurorehabilitation?
Talk Summary
Intensive therapy is necessary to improve motor outcomes in children and adults undergoing neurorehabilitation. However, there does not seem to be an agreed-upon definition of the terms "intensity," "dose," and "dosage" of motor interventions, nor is there a universal measure to accurately quantify therapy intensity. In this talk, I will present some of our work on the completeness of intensity reporting in trials, our efforts to identify outcomes that could quantify intensity in active pediatric upper limb neurorehabilitation, and our initial findings on comparing intensity between conventional and technology-assisted upper limb therapy in a pediatric inpatient setting.
About the Speaker
Hubertus van Hedel, Ph.D., PT, is Prof. for neurorehabilitation, head of research, and member of the executive board of Swiss Children’s Rehab of the University Children’s Hospital Zurich, Switzerland. He was trained as a physiotherapist (Bachelor in 1995) and biomedical health scientist (MSc in 1998) in the Netherlands. He moved to Switzerland in 1999 to work in adult neurorehabilitation. He received his Ph.D. in 2004 and switched in 2010 to pediatric neurorehabilitation. He was appointed Adj. Professor by the University of Zurich in 2016 and Honorary Professor by the Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, in 2018. His research interests cover pediatric neurorehabilitation, outcome assessments, motor learning, and rehabilitation technologies. Huub and his team won multiple awards during the past years. He holds several teaching appointments, is member of various (inter-)national societies, authored over 100 publications, acquired over CHF 16M in funding, and is an editorial board member of Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair.ns in the context of neurorehabilitation?
Collaborative, Community-Engaged, and Cross-System Transitions to Work for Youth with Disabilities
Featured Speaker
Dr. Michele A. Schutz, Assistant Professor, Department of Special Education, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Date and Time
October 28, 2025, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. ET
Talk Title
Collaborative, Community-Engaged, and Cross-System Transitions to Work for Youth with Disabilities
Talk Summary
Despite progress in policies and practices aimed at improving adulthood outcomes for young people with disabilities, many service systems continue to fall short in ensuring they are afforded opportunities to achieve their postsecondary employment goals. Across the globe, local communities can serve as critical catalysts of essential experiences and linkages that equip youth and young adults with disabilities for their employment pursuits. Yet, these informal supports may not always be considered in transition planning. In this talk, the speaker will review pertinent predictors of postsecondary employment for youth with disabilities and discuss innovative approaches in which communities can leverage their local capacities toward elevating long stagnant employment outcomes. Practical strategies, collaborations, and considerations for clinicians, families, and other professionals who serve transition-age youth and young adults with disabilities will be discussed, including implications for rural communities.
About the Speaker
Michele Schutz, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Schutz’s work addresses (a) factors affecting the delivery and impact of career development and transition services for students with disabilities; (b) interdisciplinary roles and cross-systems collaborations for professionals who support these efforts; and (c) the purposeful leveraging of local assets within rural communities toward transition best practices. Through her work, she seeks to (1) center the lived experiences of disabled individuals, particularly those with low-incidence disabilities and extensive support needs, and (2) collaborate with people with disabilities and those who support them within community-engaged scholarship. She also teaches pre-service special educators and partners with her community and state to support local transition efforts and collaborations. Previously, she taught high school students with disabilities and worked as a transition specialist connecting students to postsecondary opportunities.
Pathophysiology of dystonia in cerebral palsy
Featured Speaker
Dr. Bhooma Aravamuthan, Assistant Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics, Medical and Research Director of the Cerebral Palsy and Mobility Center, Washington University School of Medicine
Date and Time
September 30, 2025, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. ET
Talk Title
Pathophysiology of dystonia in cerebral palsy
Talk Summary
Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common lifelong motor disability globally and the condition most often associated with dystonia, a debilitating movement disorder that is underdiagnosed and lacks evidence-based treatment regimens. We will discuss multi-model methods to facilitate dystonia assessment clinically and in animal models of (CP) and how we use these methods to identify novel treatment targets for dystonia in CP.
About the Speaker
Bhooma Aravamuthan MD, DPhil is an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Director of the Cerebral Palsy and Mobility Center at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. As a systems neuroscientist and pediatric movement disorders specialist, she conducts translational research on dystonia pathophysiology in cerebral palsy. Her research is funded through multiple sources including National Institute of Neurologic Disorders and Stroke, Centers for Disease Control, and American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and her awards include the American Academy of Neurology Jon Stolk Award and Child Neurology Society Philip R. Dodge Award. She is married to an adult epileptologist and a mom to 7-year-old twin boys and a 5-year-old girl.
