Researchers at Harvard University hope to discover the causes of developmental disabilities in African children

Of the world's 2.
6 billion children, an estimated 11 per cent, or 291.
2 million, suffer from one of four developmental disorders — epilepsy, intellectual disability, vision loss and hearing loss
.
According to recent estimates, 95 per cent of these children live in low- and middle-income countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
.

To find out why, University of Houston researcher Elena Grigorenko and her colleagues in the United States and Zambia are working on a five-year project in rural Zambia in southern Africa to study children
with developmental disabilities.
The research was funded by a $3.
3 million grant from the Eunice Kennedy Schriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
.

"Stunting is a major public health problem, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where resources to diagnose and treat them are severely limited," said
Grigorenko, Hugh Roy and Lily Krantz Cullen Visiting Professor of Psychology.

"My research group and our partners at the Macha Research Trust in Zambia aim to build a large sample of children with developmental disabilities and provide detailed descriptions of relevant phenotypes to study the causes of
these disabilities," she said.
"We also document how they are perceived and treated within the community and assess the services available to them to determine what services they still need
.
" Ultimately, we want to provide policymakers with relevant recommendations to improve their quality of life
.
”

Zambia is one of the least developed countries in the world, with more than half of the population living on less than $
2 a day.

Grigorenko is director of the GENESIS (Genetics and Neurobehavioral Systems) Laboratory in Harvard's College of Arts and Social Sciences, and holds a PhD in
psychology and genetics.
She has published 500 peer-reviewed articles, books and book chapters and has worked with children and their families in sub-Saharan Africa for more than a decade
.
This latest project will focus on children aged 3-18 years
.

The research team aims to find about 2,000 children with developmental disabilities and 2,000 matched siblings in Zambia, for a total of 4,000 children
.
Together, they will generate a unique multi-layered dataset that includes children's social background, behavior, brain, and genomic data
.

"This dataset will show manifestations and causal pathways for a range of development barriers, particularly in rural Zambia and sub-Saharan Africa
," Grigorenko said.

Grigorenko will conduct the research with her vast research team at UH, including Luca Pollonini
, associate professor of computer engineering technology.

The study was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development by Euris Kennedy Schriver under grant number R01HD109307
.