Drs Martinica Garofalo in Pisa for a joint research project
Since September 2023, Martinica Garofalo, one of our MD-PhD candidates, is in Pisa (Italy) conducting a joint research project between the Department of Pediatric Neurology of the UMCG and the Department of Developmental Neurosciences of the IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris.
Together with Prof. dr. Andrea Guzzetta and his team in Pisa, Martinica is analyzing retrospective videos of the early motor repertoire of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) in preschool years (0-4 years). DCD is a very common neurodevelopmental disorder, presenting with impaired coordination and various learning disabilities, affecting children’s daily life activities. According to the official guidelines, DCD can only be diagnosed after the 5th year of life, but recent studies suggested that signs of motor dysfunction can already be seen in the first weeks of life. With this project, the team aims at recognizing possible early abnormal motor patterns in children with DCD. This could lead to early intervention, and hopefully to an improvement in their quality of life!
Martinica is funded by the Nederlandse Vereniging Voor Kinderneurologie and the ERN-RND, European Reference Network for Rare Neurological Diseases