Our Story
DATCH was born out of a students' undergraduate thesis project in her specialization in Child Health. At the time, the student was also volunteering in McMaster's hemophilia clinic. After learning about the different developmental milestones during a child's typical development and the importance of ensuring that resources were accessible and inclusive, she set out to find resources that were suitable to children with hemophilia depending on their developmental milestones. The idea of the DATCH project was created. DATCH aims to develop appropriate resources to children with hemophilia of various developmental stages where gaps exist by collaborating with a child's care team, compile good resources together to ensure accessibility, provide learning opportunities for students to utilize their skills to contribute to the project, and ensure the materials that DATCH develops are inclusive.
Why is DATCH Important?
DATCH stands for Developmentally-Appropriate Tools for Children with Hemophilia. As you may know, most resources in hemophilia are not designed for children. Of the available resources that are actually designed for children, a lot of the content isn't specifically tailored to what your child should be learning at their age. This means that children with hemophilia lack the opportunity to better understand their condition, and therefore cannot engage in conversations that would otherwise reduce fear, improve self-confidence and improve patient outcomes.
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Visual Examples of DATCH Projects
