MEET THE JURY SEMINAR: 'Advances in highly intensive interventions and the importance of awareness for children with Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Coordination Disorder'

Prof. dr. Yannick Bleyenheuft:

Prof. dr. Yannick Bleyenheuft, PT, is a professor at the Institute of Neuroscience, UCLouvain (Belgium) and honorary affiliate of the Center for Cerebral Palsy Research at Teachers College, Columbia University (USA). She completed a sabbatical in 2019 as visiting professor at the University of Queensland’s Child Health Research Centre (Australia).

Trained in physiotherapy and neuroscience, her work focuses on motor control, neurorehabilitation and neuroplasticity in children with brain lesions. She holds the first academic Chair dedicated to intensive neurorehabilitation and leads the Motor Skill Learning and Intensive Neurorehabilitation Lab, which investigates motor control alterations, therapeutic models based on motor skill learning, and associated neuroplastic mechanisms.

She collaborates with researchers and clinicians worldwide and is internationally recognized for developing HABIT-ILE, an intensive functional rehabilitation approach for children with cerebral palsy that combines bimanual and locomotor activities to improve performance in activities of daily living and social participation.

Prof. dr. Ludvik Valtr:

Prof. dr. Ludvík Valtr is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Physical Culture of Palacký University Olomouc (Czech Republic).

His research focuses on motor development and movement coordination in children, with a particular interest in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). He studies motor control, postural stability, motor-cognitive processes, and the assessment of motor skills, contributing to a better understanding of the factors that influence motor performance and participation in daily life.

Prof. dr. Valtr collaborates with international researchers in the fields of motor development, rehabilitation, and movement sciences and is an active member of the DCD Big Ideas Group, an international network dedicated to advancing research, awareness and support for individuals with DCD.