Brian Helsel, PhD, MS, CSCS

Congratulations to the 2024 Paper of the Year: "Physical Activity Patterns in Adolescents and Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities" by Helsel et al. Read the paper: brnw.ch/21wRRiu

DYK there are 28 evidence-based practices that have been shown to benefit those with autism? They include: ☑️ Modeling ☑️ Sensory integration ☑️ Visual supports Learn about the 28 practices & how they can be incorporated into exercise programming: brnw.ch/21wOB8v

I’m excited to be on the team of investigators helping lead this funded initiative by the @NIH INCLUDE Project alongside others at @KUMedCenter. We care about our friends with Down syndrome and we are glad that NIH sees this research as a priority. nichd.nih.gov/newsroom/news/…

@conroylab @UMich @UMKines It looks like an exciting time for @UMKines! My favorite quote in the video was “we believe every student has the potential to make movement mean more” and I enjoyed seeing the focus on inclusion in movement including people from diverse backgrounds or with disabilities.

Some people have asked why I moved to @UMich and it’s simple really - Every Move Matters @UMKines youtu.be/mRBAIjguZ4g

🚨Exciting opportunity!! Tenure-track faculty opening (open rank) in Kinesiology at Indiana University Bloomington. We're looking for an expert to utilize our Bioenergetics & Environmental Stress Suite and Nutrition & Metabolic Clinical Research Lab! indiana.peopleadmin.com/postings/26098

Adults with Down syndrome face a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease. Our new study explores the link between physical function and dementia risk symptoms. Key findings: Lower physical function and ADLs may serve as early indicators of dementia risk. alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/tr…

@Cghlewis Good approach! I also like adding the label as an attribute for describing the data or to save time when creating gtsummary tables as it uses the label. Something like this. for(i in names(df)){ attr(df[[i]], "label") <- dict$label[which(dict$new_name == i)] }

I can't remember the last time I renamed variables manually in #rstats. I always use my data dictionary for renaming! That way, if I ever need to update names in the future, I'm only updating once in my data dictionary, not in both my data dictionary and script. 🙌

@rmarkdown Do you have any tips on collaborating on reports or manuscripts and offering the Microsoft Word equivalent of tracked changes? I’ve used ‘#’ to write comments and GitHub allows us to view changes and make pull requests, but it doesn’t seem to be the best solution.

🚀 We're now on LinkedIn! 📷 Join us for the latest #RMarkdown & #QuartoPub tips, whether you're a pro or just starting out. Follow & join the conversation! 📷 Follow us: linkedin.com/showcase/rcoll…… #rstats #rcommunity #DataScience

I'm enjoying the flexibility of making consort diagrams in R and incorporating them into reports using Graphviz. I'm working on an R package using a similar approach as DiagrammeR to make it easier to build these diagrams within an R script.

lower physical activity during weekends and during the morning and evening, emphasizing the need for promoting physical activity outside of school and work hours. (3/3)

and highlights the need for targeted physical activity promotion. We examined physical activity and sedentary time of 330 persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities across various age groups (10–70 years) using data from portable accelerometers. We found... (2/3)

I'm excited to share our latest study on physical activity and sedentary time in individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This research offers insights into daily and seasonal physical activity patterns... (1/3) journals.lww.com/acsm-esm/fullt…

New publication! We found that an 18-month exercise intervention improved physical activity, motor skills, and strength in adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Parental involvement had no impact on these outcomes. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38967389/

I graduated from GVSU with a bachelors in clinical exercise science in 2012 and I'm confident that my experiences at GVSU positively influenced my pursuit of a PhD and research career studying the effects of exercise on brain health.

It was great walking around campus at my alma mater again. I can’t even remember the last time I was on the Grand Valley State University campus as it’s been 12 years since attending and 10 years since moving from Michigan.

The Last Ride: One Dad's Essay on 640+ Bike Rides to School & Why It Meant Everything Yeah, I lost it. I kinda thought I might, but as I biked with my son on his last day of elementary school and our last day ever of me biking with him... The dad emotions hit me hard, which we'll get to... By my count we've covered about 2,400 miles together these last four years of biking to school... That's an entire trip across country... The first three years I biked with both my son and my daughter, but she's moved up to middle and bikes with her friends... It's the natural progression of parenthood and childhood and I'd be 100% lying if I said every day was great... Most were fine... Some were pleasant... Some with tantrums and arguments and kids refusing to slow down or speed up were frustrating as hell... My daughter went about 3 weeks straight back in 3rd grade with the sole mission of going way too fast for my son (then in 2nd) to keep up on his little bike... Which would leave me playing dad in the middle, yelling ahead to her to slow down and behind to him to relax... Good times... But most mornings were ordinary and by that I mean exceptional... The stuff that day-to-day life is made of with little kids that flies by... We talked about space and insects and state capitols... We discussed best school lunches and dinosaurs and ice cream flavors... We debated Moana vs. Ariel and Macho Man vs. John Cena... We covered everything... 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade... It is the greatest privilege of dad life to be able to spend this uninterrupted time with my kids, just us, biking to school in the sun and fresh air for 25 minutes.... No screens. No distractions. Nobody else... Then my daughter moved up and this year it was just me and my boy. 10 at the start of the year, 11 now... And he's a little dude through and through... football, hoops, WWE, music, action movies... We've discussed history and science and the Olympics and the best decades... I've imparted my wisdom on everything from Michael Crichton books to Terminator 2 to LL Cool J to Bo Jackson highlights... The kid could slide into the early 90s and not miss a bit haha... And damn will I miss our daily morning hang time. About sports. About life. About school and friends... And sure, it's just a bike ride. We have a million things we do together and I'm going to replace the ride with nightly dog walks with me so we still have our time... But this is the end of a dad era... And yes, when he walked over to the bike rack today, and he did his last, goofy, LA Knight "YEAH!" pointing goodbye (that I do back, it's our thing)... I lost it... waterworks... a blubbering mess... like i said, i kinda knew i would... but i was cool with it. earned it in a way. these 2,400 miles have been glorious and i'll remember them collectively for the rest of my life. The lesson: Spend daily time with your kids outside, away from screens and friends and distractions. Just you. Find a thing... a bike ride... a walk... a catch... whatever... But do it and do it most days... It's time spent that you will never regret. If you're a dad reading this column, please share it and follow me @Jon_Finkel for more writing like this.

Our new publication in @BrainComms is out! It highlights a pathway linking higher pulse pressure to dementia in adults with Down syndrome. Super thankful to @AdamMBrickman and @mike_yassa for their mentorship! A thread 🧵.. link: academic.oup.com/braincomms/art…

I’m excited to have this manuscript published in the @JMPBjournal and @Human_Kinetics. Check out our open-access article and our translation of the @actigraph count algorithm at github.com/bhelsel/agcoun…. The agcounts R package is also available on CRAN. @Lauren_Ptomey @evidoni5

RDAD-KC isn't just changing lives for Alzheimer's patients—it's also helping individuals with intellectual disabilities & caregivers. Reduced behavioral symptoms, increased physical activity, & less distress show promise for a brighter future! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ja…

I’m looking forward to another opportunity to attend a NIH INCLUDE Investigators Meeting and continued collaboration with others who believe that people with Down syndrome should be included in clinical and community research.

It was great to meet and network with other NIH INCLUDE investigators to discuss the accomplishments of NIH INCLUDE over the past 5 years and plans for the future. The breakout sessions and talks were informative, engaging, and motivating!