Hércules Ribeiro

Dr. Hércules Ribeiro Leite is a physical therapist, professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG, Brazil), and a supervisor in the UFMG Graduate Program in Rehabilitation Sciences. He holds a master’s and a doctoral degree in Physiology with an emphasis on Neurosciences from UFMG and a Postdoctoral degree in Physical Therapy at The University of Sydney, Australia.

His research focuses on identifying barriers to implementing best practices in rehabilitation in Brazil and translating knowledge for Brazilian families and clinicians. Based on these gaps, his work has been directed toward investigating effective strategies to promote physical literacy and participation in leisure and sports activities for children and adolescents with disabilities, such as through modified sports and context-focused interventions. With the goal of measuring the impact of interventions on mobility performance and physical literacy, he is part of the team that developed the Gross Motor Family Report (GM-FR) and the Physical Literacy Profile Questionnaire (PLP-Quest), respectively.

Currently, he is the Coordinator of the Brazilian Cerebral Palsy Registry (RB-PC), which aims to identify the clinical and functioning profiles of children, adolescents, and adults with cerebral palsy in Brazil. The RB-PC has engaged public and patient involvement to identify meaningful research questions and serves as a source of knowledge translation and information for numerous families of individuals with CP in Brazil.

He has been an advocate for including families and clinicians in research, as well as for family-centered services in Brazil. In this context, he was part of the team that developed the F-Words Lens Tool, a resource designed to identify intervention components in collaboration with families, helping clinicians and caregivers look beyond intervention labels and recognize opportunities within their natural environment.

Hércules has numerous articles, books, and book chapters published, which have translated knowledge into Brazilian Portuguese and have helped and inspired countless students and professionals in Brazil to adopt better practices in rehabilitation. He has also contributed to the translation of several tools into Brazilian Portuguese, including the Y-PEM, CAPE/PAC, and PREP, all of which are available on CanChild’s Hub in Portuguese.