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Emerging research suggests that maternal immune activation (MIA) may be associated with an increased risk of adverse neurodevelopmental and mental health outcomes in offspring. Using data from the Raine Study, we investigated whether MIA during pregnancy was associated with increased behavioral and emotional problems in offspring longitudinally across development.
In the disability sector globally, and specifically in Australia, assessments of functioning have become key to diagnostic processes, and accessing therapy and funding. Over half of all individuals accessing support through Australia's National Disability Insurance Scheme have a neurodevelopmental condition diagnosis.
Despite being highly prevalent among people with autism, restricted and unusual interests remain under-researched and poorly understood. This article confirms that restricted interests are very frequent and varied among children and adolescents with autism. It also further extends current knowledge in this area by characterizing the relationship between the presence, number, and type of restricted interests with chronological age, sex, cognitive functioning, and social and communication symptoms.
Chloe recently decided to bake cupcakes to sell to her school friends and teachers and it was all for a cause very close to her heart - autism research.
The study of temperament in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has the potential to provide insight regarding variability in the onset, nature, and course of both core and co-morbid symptoms. The aim of this systematic review was to integrate existing findings concerning temperament in the context of ASD. Searches of Medline, PsychInfo and Scopus databases identified 64 relevant studies. As a group, children and adolescents with ASD appear to be temperamentally different from both typically developing and other clinical non-ASD groups, characterized by higher negative affectivity, lower surgency, and lower effortful control at a higher-order level.
We investigated whether a commonly used research assessment - the Autism Observation Scale for Infants (AOSI) - accurately measures autism behaviours among infants showing early signs of autism identified within the community. The AOSI is often included in studies tracking the development of infants at increased likelihood of autism, such as the infant siblings of diagnosed children. However, the suitability of this measure has not previously been tested with community-referred infants.
Professor Andrew Whitehouse tells how Australia’s first national guideline for the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder is going to transform the way the condition is assessed and managed, vastly improving the experience for families.
Researchers at The Kids Research Institute Australia and University of Western Australia have recently published data describing the use of an attention training game designed for school-aged children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Autism researchers from The Kids Research Institute Australia have called for the term ‘high functioning autism’ to be abandoned because of the misleading and potentially harmful expectations it creates around the abilities of children on the autism spectrum.
Professor Andrew Whitehouse, who has helped transform clinical support for children on the autism spectrum in Australia, is nominated for WA's 2023 Australian of the Year.