Our Mission

The mission of IDPA is to create a scientific international platform to connect and support clinicians, researchers and policy makers working in the field of Developmental Pediatrics and Allied Disciplines from around the world to address the inequity in how children are supported to develop to their full potential.

Homecoming for Professionals

International Developmental Pediatrics Association (IDPA) is an international platform where professionals working in the field of child development and disability come together to share ideas, experiences and research.

The IDPA Congress aims at exchanging and discussing scientific information, evidence-based practices, policies as well as sharing experiences, visions, passions and dreams of professionals from pediatrics and a multitude of other disciplines.


Message From the IDPA Congress 2021 President:
Ghassan Issa

Dear Colleagues,

We invite you to the 4th International Developmental Pediatrics Association (IDPA) Congress on December 2-5, 2021. IDPA and the Arab Network for Early Childhood Development (ANECD), Beirut, Lebanon, will together host this Virtual Congress.

The IDPA Congress is held every two years on or around the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, December 3, in a low or middle-income country. The 2021 IDPA Congress will be a virtual conference that continues the tradition of past Congresses held in Istanbul, Turkey (2015), Mumbai, India (2017), and Manila, Philippines (2019) by serving as a platform that will bring together clinicians, researchers, and policymakers working for child development and disabilities from around the world. It is indeed timely that the theme of the 2021 IDPA Congress is ‘Nurturing Children in Crisis.’ The pandemic continues to affect children of all ages in all countries and affects the poorest and the most vulnerable, such as those with chronic illness or disability, the most.

Vision and Core Values

The vision of IDPA is to achieve equity in developmental pediatrics and related services for children and families around the world.

The core values of IDPA are:


  • Science and partnership for equity

  • Holistic, family-centered, strengths-based, community oriented, transdisciplinary capacity building

  • UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

  • UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities

Congresses

The IDPA congresses are held every two years to discuss and spread knowledge about developmental disabilities and early intervention.

2021

Beirut, Lebanon

Nurturing Children in Crisis

As we commemorate December 3rd, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, I invite you to the 4th International Developmental Pediatrics Association (IDPA) Congress in December 2021 which will be entirely online and will be hosted by the Arab Network for Early Childhood Development, Beirut, Lebanon.


2019

Manila, Philippines

9 to 12 December

Transdisciplinary Intervention
Ideas In Action

The next IDPA Conference is kicking off in the Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex in Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines. Abstracts on Interventions, ECD, neurodevelopmental disabilities and risk factors for developmental disabilities will be presented.


2017

Mumbai, India

7 to 10 December

A World of Difference

We explored the continuum of developmental differences in childhood, children at risk and children with disabilities. We bridged the gaps in policy, practice and research that exist between low and middle-income countries (LMICs) and high-income countries (HICs).


2015

Istanbul, Turkey

2 to 5 December

Addressing Disability and Development
in Early Childhood Development

The first IDPA Congress was held in Istanbul in 2015. More than 600 professionals from 50 countries participated and represented diverse disciplines (developmental and general pediatrics, therapists, psychologists, policy makers and advocates).