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New roadmap to help families navigate support for autistic children

Australia’s first national guideline for supporting the learning, participation and wellbeing of autistic children and their families.

Therapy for babies with signs of autism cuts long-term disability costs

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.

Investigating the impact of developmental coordination difficulties across home, school, and community settings: Findings from the Australian Impact for DCD survey

To evaluate the participation difficulties experienced by children with developmental coordination disorder in home, school, and community environments.  

Investigating associations between birth order and autism diagnostic phenotypes

Birth order effects have been linked to variability in intelligence, educational attainment and sexual orientation. First- and later-born children have been linked to an increased likelihood of an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis, with a smaller body of evidence implicating decreases in cognitive functioning with increased birth order. The present study investigated the potential association between birth order and ASD diagnostic phenotypes in a large and representative population sample.

Six finalists cement The Kids' research excellence in milestone Premier's Science Awards

Six scientists from The Kids Research Institute Australia have been named finalists across four categories in the 2026 Premier's Science Awards.

Congratulations Andrew

Congratulations to Professor Andrew Whitehouse on being named a finalist in the prestigious Premier’s Science Awards.

Evidence that infant and early childhood developmental impairments are associated with hallucinatory experiences: Results from a large, population-based cohort study

Cognitive and motor dysfunction are hallmark features of the psychosis continuum, and have been detected during late childhood and adolescence in youth who report psychotic experiences (PE). However, previous investigations have not explored infancy and early childhood development.

Behavioural and neuropsychological outcomes in children exposed in utero to maternal labour epidural analgesia

Recent studies report conflicting results regarding the relationship between labour epidural analgesia (LEA) in mothers and neurodevelopmental disorders in their offspring. We evaluated behavioural and neuropsychological test scores in children of mothers who used LEA.

The valence-specific empathy imbalance hypothesis of autism: The role of autistic traits, alexithymia, emotion dysregulation, and gender differences

Individuals exhibiting pronounced autistic traits (e.g., social differences and specialised interests) may struggle with cognitive empathy (i.e., the ability to infer others' emotions), although the relationship with affective empathy (i.e., the ability to share others' emotions) is less clear in that higher levels of autistic traits may be linked with increased affective empathy for negative emotions but reduced affective empathy for positive emotions. The current study investigates this empathy profile and whether alexithymia and emotion dysregulation help to explain it.

Feasibility of a 2-minute eye-tracking protocol to support the early identification of autism

We tested the potential for Gazefinder eye-tracking to support early autism identification, including feasible use with infants, and preliminary concurrent validity of trial-level gaze data against clinical assessment scores. We embedded the ~ 2-min 'Scene 1S4' protocol within a comprehensive clinical assessment for 54 consecutively-referred, clinically-indicated infants (prematurity-corrected age 9-14 months).