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News & Events

Clinic update - December 2023

There is lots of news to report from the clinic including holiday shutdown dates, appointment scheduling, staff updates, changes to creche, and service availability.

News & Events

Want to be part of shaping our research and services?

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.

Research

Parent-reported Areas of Greatest Challenge for their ADHD and/or Autistic Children

This study aimed to understand how parents describe the most challenging behaviors exhibited by their children diagnosed with autism and/or ADHD, how those behaviours impact their family, and whether challenges are directly related to the core characteristics of these conditions. 

Research

Empathy and Autism: Establishing the Structure and Different Manifestations of Empathy in Autistic Individuals Using the Perth Empathy Scale

There is a common mischaracterisation that autistic individuals have reduced or absent empathy. Measurement issues may have influenced existing findings on the relationships between autism and empathy, and the structure of the empathy construct in autism remains unclear.

Research

Investigating Parental Observations of Early Autism Development in Simplex and Multiplex Families

Past research has highlighted the importance of early identification of developmental differences to improve targeted access to early interventions or supports. As such, it is of particular importance in the context of children at elevated likelihood of autism (such as where an older sibling has a diagnosis of autism), to better understand when and which early concerns are important as predictors of which children will benefit from pre-diagnostic supports.

Research

Investigating the impact of autistic children's feeding difficulties on caregivers

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of children's autism characteristics, sensory profiles and feeding difficulties on caregiver-reported impact at mealtimes.

Research

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).

Research

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.

Research

The effect of oxytocin nasal spray on social interaction in young children with autism: a randomized clinical trial

Early supports to enhance social development in children with autism are widely promoted. While oxytocin has a crucial role in mammalian social development, its potential role as a medication to enhance social development in humans remains unclear.

Research

Harmonized Phenotypes for Anxiety, Depression, and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

In multi-cohort consortia, the problem often arises that a phenotype is measured using different questionnaires. This study aimed to harmonize scores based on the Child Behaviour Check List (CBCL) and the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) for anxiety/depression and ADHD.