About 600 abstracts were submitted to the 80th Annual Meeting of the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine (AACPDM), held September 27 to 30, 2026 at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown. A 40 member committee scored them blind in March. The final program lists 160 podium talks, 169 scientific posters and 70 education sessions.
Most of that work has not been published as full papers yet. What families can read now is the program itself: who was scheduled to speak, on what, and which studies the Academy named as finalists for its top research prize, the Gayle G. Arnold Award.
We read the 26 page final program and picked five items with a direct bearing on daily life with cerebral palsy (CP): walking, sport, adult health, communication technology and the move to adult care.
“A program listing tells you what researchers chose to present in Philadelphia. It does not tell you what they found. The numbers will be in the published abstracts.”
— Cerebral Palsy Center Editorial Team
Walking in short bursts, and running in a frame
Three Gayle G. Arnold finalists on Tuesday, September 29 came from Kristie Bjornson and Noelle Moreau. The main one was a randomized trial of short burst interval treadmill training: 30 seconds of fast walking, then 30 seconds of slower walking, repeated. Its ClinicalTrials.gov record lists 60 children aged 6 to 10 at GMFCS levels II and III (children who walk, some with a hand held aid), with 40 home sessions over 8 weeks compared against steady speed walking. In their 2019 pilot of 12 children, distance in a one minute walk rose by about 11 meters.
The same session listed a multicenter randomized trial of Frame Running, a para athletics event, from Sarah Reedman and colleagues at the University of Queensland. The team's 2022 protocol planned 12 weeks of training, twice a week for 60 minutes, for young people at GMFCS levels II to V.
Adults with CP had a session of their own
A Wednesday, September 30 session covered chronic pain in adults, remote group therapy for pain, healthy aging, work and income, and adults' experience of primary care. That last study, led by Cristina Sarmiento, MD, was a finalist for both the Arnold Award and the Best Adult Paper Award.
The meeting closed with a lecture on moving from pediatric to adult care by Patience White, MD, of Got Transition. Its Six Core Elements begin at ages 12 to 14 and run through age 23.
A brain computer interface, and a family on stage
A team including Adam Kirton, MD, and Eli Kinney-Lang of the Calgary Pediatric Brain-Computer Interface Program was scheduled to report on children with severe quadriplegic CP reaching goals that were impossible before, using a system that turns brain signals into commands.
The Gayle G. Arnold Lecture, "My Inclusive Life," was given by Samuel Habib, 26, a filmmaker who uses a communication device, and his father, Dan Habib, co-directors of the Emmy winning PBS film The Ride Ahead.
What the program does not show
Richard Stevenson, MD, opened Monday with a lecture on growth and the CP growth charts, which we cover separately. We found no valbenazine session in the program. Neurocrine said in December 2025 that its KINECT-DCP trial missed its main goal.
A finalist is not a winner, and the program names no winners. AACPDM says all accepted scientific presentations are published in a supplement of Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology. That is where the results will be.
