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CliniKids’ new clinic in the Joondalup area is coming along nicely and is on track to open around the middle of the year.

April is Autism Month and to mark the occasion, we’re transforming our reception desk in the clinic to an AMAZING wall for our families to contribute to.

Nicki, Leah, Tracy, and Amy make up our wonderful Client Support team at CliniKids. The team was established in mid-2021 as services began to grow.

CliniKids held its inaugural Frangipani Family Day recently – an event organised to honour the wonderful contribution of its much loved and dearly missed colleague, the late Kate Sorensen.

The Client Support Team at CliniKids has some new faces! Nicki and Amy join our lovely Tracy.

Meet Leah – the latest addition to the CliniKids team. We asked Leah, our new Operations Manager, a couple of questions to get to know her.

Autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often co-occur. This survey of 288 New Zealand parents of children diagnosed with autism, ADHD, or both conditions, examined the relations between age of diagnosis and early atypical development, the age specialist consultation was needed and types of specialists seen.

Autism spectrum disorders are complex, with a strong genetic basis. Genetic research in autism spectrum disorders is limited by the fact that these disorders are largely heterogeneous so that patients are variable in their clinical presentations. To address this limitation, we investigated the genetics of individual dimensions of the autism spectrum disorder phenotypes, or autistic-like traits. These autistic-like traits are continuous variations in autistic behaviours that occur in the general population.

The diagnostic experiences of autistic adults in New Zealand have not been investigated and little is known globally about autistic adults' satisfaction with the autism diagnostic process. This study describes the diagnostic experiences of 70 autistic adults living in New Zealand and explores how these experiences are related to satisfaction during three stages of the diagnostic process. The results show that autistic adults were reasonably satisfied with the early query and diagnostic assessment stages, but were dissatisfied with the post-diagnostic support stage, with significant unmet needs. Dissatisfaction during the post-diagnostic support stage was also related to satisfaction during previous stages and poor coordination of supports. Suggestions are made on how to improve the autism diagnostic pathway for autistic adults in New Zealand.

Evidence suggests that individuals with autism spectrum disorder have increased rates of co-occurring psychosis and/or bipolar disorder. Considering the peak age of onset for psychosis and bipolar disorder occurs in adulthood, we investigated the co-occurrence of these disorders in adults with autism.