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Research
Unpacking the complex nature of the autism epidemicThe etiology of autism spectrum disorders is unknown but there are claims of increasing prevalence in many countries.
Research
Evidence against poor semantic encoding in individuals with autismThis article tests the hypothesis that individuals with autism poorly encode verbal information to the semantic level of processing, instead paying greater...
Research
Do children with autism 'switch off' to speech sounds? An investigation using event-related potentialsAutism is a disorder characterized by a core impairment in social behaviour. A prominent component of this social deficit is poor orienting to speech.
News & Events
The Kids welcomes Federal Government’s commitment to early supportThe Kids Research Institute Australia welcomes today’s Federal Government announcement of a new pilot program to support babies showing early social communication differences in Western Australia.
News & Events
World-first Inklings Program launches in South AustraliaSouth Australian families with babies showing early social and communication differences will be among the first to benefit from a nation-leading early support program, as The Kids Research Institute Australia’s Inklings Program officially launches in South Australia.
News & Events
Renowned Autism Researcher named Western Australian of the YearAutism researcher Professor Andrew Whitehouse has been named this year’s Western Australian of the Year in the HBF Professions category.
Research
Eye Gaze in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Review of Neural Evidence for the Eye Avoidance HypothesisReduced eye contact early in life may play a role in the developmental pathways that culminate in a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. However, there are contradictory theories regarding the neural mechanisms involved. According to the amygdala theory of autism, reduced eye contact results from a hypoactive amygdala that fails to flag eyes as salient. However, the eye avoidance hypothesis proposes the opposite-that amygdala hyperactivity causes eye avoidance. This review evaluated studies that measured the relationship between eye gaze and activity in the 'social brain' when viewing facial stimuli.
Research
Parental perspectives of the everyday experiences of uncertainty among young children on the autism spectrumAnxiety commonly co-occurs in autism. Exploring and understanding potential underpinning mechanisms contributing to and maintaining anxiety in the early years is important in managing anxiety. Intolerance of uncertainty (IU), a tendency to find uncertainty difficult, is a transdiagnostic mechanism contributing to anxiety, but little is known about how IU may be experienced in young children on the autism spectrum. This study investigated parental perspectives of children's experiences of uncertainty.
Research
An investigation of a novel broad autism phenotype: increased facial masculinity among parents of children on the autism spectrumThe broad autism phenotype commonly refers to sub-clinical levels of autistic-like behaviour and cognition presented in biological relatives of autistic people. In a recent study, we reported findings suggesting that the broad autism phenotype may also be expressed in facial morphology, specifically increased facial masculinity.
Research
Continuity of temperament subgroup classifications from infancy to toddlerhood in the context of early autism traitsOur previous cross-sectional investigation (Chetcuti et al., 2020) showed that infants with autism traits could be divided into distinct subgroups based on temperament. This longitudinal study builds on this existing work by exploring the continuity of temperament subgroup classifications and their associations with behavioral/clinical phenotypic features from infancy to toddlerhood.