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infant.
http://www.unomaha.edu/infant
Project director: Dr. Nick Stergiou

Dr. Stergiou and his colleagues from the Munroe-Meyer Institute, Reggie Harbourne and Dr. Wayne Stuberg, are beginning the second year of a three year $450,000 grant from the US Department of Education and the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. The title of the grant is the “Investigation of the dynamics of development of sitting postural control in infants with cerebral palsy”. This collaboration has led to innovative ways to evaluate the development of sitting posture in children. This grant enables our research to move forward in establishing baseline data for the diagnosis of movement disorders and the examination of treatment efficacy.

Our research team also develops clinical tools that can assist in determining effective treatments for children with movement dysfunction and early detection of disabilities. Reggie Harbourne and Dr. Stergiou presented our work at the III Step Conference last July. The Summer institute on Translating Evidence into Practice (STEP) is a multidisciplinary summer institute which is held approximately every twenty years. It is designed to advance physical therapy for people with movement dysfunction through the translation of movement science into effective clinical interventions. Our research received enthusiastic comments from many participants and it is also invited to appear as a scientific paper in the Journal of Neurologic Physical Therapy. It was a great honor to be included in this conference as it sets the tone for the research and clinical practice in physical therapy for the next 15 to 20 years.

Graduate students Joan Deffeyes and Anastasia Kyvelidou are among the HPER Biomechanics Laboratory graduate students that work on this project. Joan received a MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford and she is currently pursuing her PhD in Psychobiology under the direction of Dr. Stergiou. Natasha received her BS in Exercise Science from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and her MS in Exercise Science from UNO. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Exercise Science.