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Examining parent use of specific intervention techniques during a 12-week training program based on the Early Start Denver Model

This study included five mothers of young children with autism who participated in a 12-week parent training program based on the Early Start Denver Model

A broad autism phenotype expressed in facial morphology

These data provide the first evidence for a broad autism phenotype expressed in a physical characteristic

Professor Helen Leonard

Principal Research Fellow

David Trembath

Head of Autism Research; Senior Principal Research Fellow

Dr Kandice Varcin

Senior Research Fellow

The first six months of life: A systematic review of early markers associated with later autism

There is now good evidence that behavioural signs of autism spectrum conditions (autism) emerge over the first two years of life. Identifying clear developmental differences early in life may facilitate earlier identification and intervention that can promote longer-term quality of life. Here we present a systematic review of studies investigating behavioural markers of later autism diagnosis or symptomology taken at 0-6 months.

Parent-child interaction and developmental outcomes in children with typical and elevated likelihood of autism

Early parent-child interactions have a critical impact on the developmental outcomes of the child. It has been reported that infants with a family history of autism and their parents may engage in different patterns of behaviours during interaction compared to those without a family history of autism. This study investigated the association of parent-child interactions with child developmental outcomes of those with typical and elevated likelihood of autism.

The relationship between pitch contours in infant-directed speech and early signs of autism in infancy

Mother-infant interactions during the first year of life are crucial to healthy infant development. The infant-directed speech (IDS), and specifically pitch contours, used by mothers during interactions are associated with infant language and social development.

Hypothesis-driven genome-wide association studies provide novel insights into genetics of reading disabilities

Reading Disability is often characterized by difficulties in the phonology of the language. While the molecular mechanisms underlying it are largely undetermined, loci are being revealed by genome-wide association studies.

Caregiver sensitivity predicts infant language use, and infant language complexity predicts caregiver language complexity, in the context of possible emerging autism

While theory supports bidirectional effects between caregiver sensitivity and language use, and infant language acquisition-both caregiver-to-infant and also infant-to-caregiver effects-empirical research has chiefly explored the former unidirectional path. In the context of infants showing early signs of autism, we investigated prospective bidirectional associations with 6-min free-play interaction samples collected for 103 caregivers and their infants (mean age 12-months; and followed up 6-months later).