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The CliniKids team has reimagined how allied health services for children with autism spectrum disorder or developmental delays are delivered.

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.

Several researchers have hypothesised that individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show encoding delays in their obligatory event-related potentials (ERPs)/ event-related fields (ERFs) for low-level auditory information compared to neurotypical (NT) samples. However, empirical research has yielded varied findings, such as low-level auditory processing in ASD samples being unimpaired, superior, or impaired compared to NT samples. Diverse outcomes have also been reported for studies investigating ASD-NT differences in functional lateralisation of delays.

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.

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.

The aim of this study was to understand the challenges experienced by families obtaining a diagnosis and therapy for developmental coordination disorder (DCD). Parents of 435 children aged 4-18 years with persistent motor difficulties consistent with a diagnosis of DCD completed an online survey. Diagnostic timeline and diagnostic label/s received were examined, along with therapies accessed.

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.

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.

New research evaluating the potential cost savings of a therapy for babies displaying early autism signs has predicted a three dollar return to Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) for every dollar invested in therapy.

For Speech Pathology Week, we asked our speech pathologists to share their favourite resource/s and how they like to use it.