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Brain development during the preschool period is complex and extensive and underlies ongoing behavioral and cognitive maturation. Increasing understanding of typical brain maturation during this time is critical to early identification of atypical development and could inform treatments and interventions.
Emerging evidence suggests that observers tend to form less favorable first impressions toward autistic people than toward non-autistic people. These negative impressions may be associated with immediate behavioral responses, as well as long-lasting attitudes toward those being observed that may negatively impact their psychosocial wellbeing.
Natural Language Sampling (NLS) offers clear potential for communication and language assessment, where other data might be difficult to interpret. We leveraged existing primary data for 18-month-olds showing early signs of autism, to examine the reliability and concurrent construct validity of NLS-derived measures coded from video-of child language, parent linguistic input, and dyadic balance of communicative interaction-against standardised assessment scores. Using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) software and coding conventions, masked coders achieved good-to-excellent inter-rater agreement across all measures.
With increasing demands for health, disability and education services, innovative approaches can help distribute limited resources according to need. Despite an increased focus on support needs within the clinical pathway and policy landscape, the body of research knowledge on this topic is at a relatively early stage. However, there appears to be a sense of unmet support needs and dissatisfaction with the provision of required support following an autism diagnosis amongst caregivers of young people on the spectrum.
Director of CliniKids, Professor Andrew Whitehouse, and Professor Murray Maybery, have been identified as the world’s most frequent autism research collaborators of the decade.
The CliniKids team has reimagined how allied health services for children with autism spectrum disorder or developmental delays are delivered.
We are currently working through several clinical audits to ensure that we are meeting our service delivery standards and governance requirements. As part of this, we have audited our Service Agreements to ensure that we have a signed agreement on file for all our clients. This agreement is an NDIS
CliniKids held Frangipani Family Day recently – an event organised to honour the wonderful contribution of its much loved and dearly missed colleague, the late Kate Sorensen.
CliniKids is committed to involving consumers and the community in all aspects of our research and service delivery. One way we do this is by providing the opportunity for consumers and community members to contribute through our community reference groups.
Frangipani Family Day is an opportunity for CliniKids to celebrate the families we engage with through our clinical services and research.