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News & Events
Celebrating our STEM teamTo celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we asked our research team to share why they became researchers, how autism became their focus and for their top tip for girls interested in pursuing a STEM career.

This series aims to provide some practical and evidence-based ideas to support your child and family.
Research
Age of Diagnosis for Co-occurring Autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder During Childhood and Adolescence: a Systematic ReviewEarly identification and intervention are recognised as important elements of the clinical pathway for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Children with ASD and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be diagnosed at a different age than children who only have one of these diagnoses.
Research
Modelling quality of life in children with intellectual disability using regression treesTo identify factors associated with quality of life (QoL) in children with intellectual disability. We aimed to identify patterns of association not observable in previous hypothesis-driven regression modelling using the same data set from a cross-sectional observational study.
Research
Evaluation of Low-intensity Therapist-Delivered Intervention in Addition to Parent Coaching for Young Children with Autism Spectrum DisorderParents are often expected to be the primary implementers of intervention for their young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The provision of a few hours a week of intervention by a trained therapist, in addition to parent-implemented intervention, could increase child outcomes compared to parent-implemented intervention in isolation.
Research
Parent-Child Interactions May Help to Explain Relations Between Parent Characteristics and Clinically Observed Child Autistic BehavioursThe importance of supporting parent-child interactions has been noted in the context of prodromal autism, but little consideration has been given to the possible contributing role of parental characteristics, such as psychological distress. This cross-sectional study tested models in which parent-child interaction variables mediated relations between parent characteristics and child autistic behaviour in a sample of families whose infant demonstrated early signs of autism.
Research
How we measure language skills of children at scale: A call to move beyond domain-specific tests as a proxy for languageThe aim of this research note is to encourage child language researchers and clinicians to give careful consideration to the use of domain-specific tests as a proxy for language; particularly in the context of large-scale studies and for the identification of language disorder in clinical practice.
Research
Autism-related dietary preferences mediate autism-gut microbiome associationsThere is increasing interest in the potential contribution of the gut microbiome to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, previous studies have been underpowered and have not been designed to address potential confounding factors in a comprehensive way.
Research
Behavioural and neuropsychological outcomes in children exposed in utero to maternal labour epidural analgesiaRecent 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.