STUDY PROTOCOL published: 07 August 2019 doi: 10.3389/fped.2019.00332 Frontiers in Pediatrics | www.frontiersin.org 1 August 2019 | Volume 7 | Article 332 Edited by: Andrea Guzzetta, University of Pisa, Italy Reviewed by: Majid Alfadhel, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Saudi Arabia Jill Edith Cadwgan, Evelina London Children’s Hospital, United Kingdom *Correspondence: Tatiana Ogourtsova tatiana.ogourtsova@mail.mcgill.ca † These authors have contributed equally to this work as first authors Specialty section: This article was submitted to Pediatric Neurology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Pediatrics Received: 16 May 2019 Accepted: 23 July 2019 Published: 07 August 2019 Citation: Majnemer A, O’Donnell M, Ogourtsova T, Kasaai B, Ballantyne M, Cohen E, Collet J-P, Dewan T, Elsabbagh M, Hanlon-Dearman A, Filliter HJ, Lach L, McElroy T, McGrath P, McKellin W, Miller A, Patel H, Rempel G, Shevell M, Wittmeier K and The Parent-Panel (2019) BRIGHT Coaching: A Randomized Controlled Trial on the Effectiveness of a Developmental Coach System to Empower Families of Children With Emerging Developmental Delay. Front. Pediatr. 7:332. doi: 10.3389/fped.2019.00332 BRIGHT Coaching: A Randomized Controlled Trial on the Effectiveness of a Developmental Coach System to Empower Families of Children With Emerging Developmental Delay Annette Majnemer 1,2† , Maureen O’Donnell 3,4† , Tatiana Ogourtsova 1,2,3 *, Bahar Kasaai 2 , Marilyn Ballantyne 5 , Eyal Cohen 6 , Jean-Paul Collet 3 , Tammie Dewan 7 , Mayada Elsabbagh 2 , Ana Hanlon-Dearman 8 , Helen Jillian Filliter 9,10 , Lucyna Lach 11 , Theresa McElroy 4,12 , Patrick McGrath 9 , William McKellin 13,14 , Anton Miller 15 , Hema Patel 2,11 , Gina Rempel 8,16 , Michael Shevell 2,11 , Kristy Wittmeier 17,18,19 and The Parent-Panel 1 Faculty of Medicine, School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada, 2 Montreal Children’s Hospital, Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center, Montreal, QC, Canada, 3 Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 4 Child-Health BC, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 5 Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada, 6 Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada, 7 BC Children’s Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 8 Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, 9 IWK Health Centre, Halifax, NS, Canada, 10 Department of Pediatrics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada, 11 McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada, 12 Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 13 Rare Disease Foundation, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 14 Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 15 Child and Family Research Institute, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 16 Children’s Hospital Winnipeg, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, 17 University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, 18 Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, 19 Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada Background: In preschool-aged children with, or at elevated risk for, developmental disabilities, challenges and needs arise from vulnerabilities linked to critical and newly emerging cognitive, speech, motor, behavioral, and social skills. For families, this can be a stressful period as they witness the gradual unfolding of their child’s differences and await to receive care. Nationally and internationally, service delivery models during this critical period are not standardized nor are they nimble or sufficient enough, leading to long wait times, service gaps and duplications. Given these struggles, there is a need to examine whether “health coaching”, a structured educational program that is deliverable by different and more accessible means, can be effective in empowering families, by delivering information, providing social supports, and decreasing the demands on the overwhelmed health and developmental services. The primary objective is to evaluate the feasibility and the effectiveness of a coaching intervention (in comparison to usual and locally available care), for parents of children with emerging developmental delays. Method/Design: A multi-centered pragmatic randomized controlled trial design will be used. Families will be recruited from a representative sample of those awaiting publicly-funded regional child health services for children with developmental delays in four Canadian provinces. The target sample size is 392 families with children aged