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Huge hospital burden for kids with intellectual disabilities

New research from the Telethon Institute has shown that children with an intellectual disability are up to 10x more likely to be admitted to hospital.

Andrew Whitehouse: environmental links to autism

Dr Andrew Whitehouse says results from a US study are just the first step when it comes to looking for environmental factors related to autism.

New study shows fetal head size could link to autism

Research has found a link between children with larger head measurements in-utero and a subsequent diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as toddlers.

Better diagnosis leads to higher autism rates

The rapid increase in the number of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in Western Australia reflects changes to diagnostic practices

World Autism Day: Championing inclusion through research, resources, and support

Today, on World Autism Day, we embrace the theme Celebrating Differences, recognising the unique strengths, perspectives, and contributions of autistic individuals.

Autism Research

The Kids' autism research takes place at CliniKids, a centre that integrates world-class research with a clinical service for children with developmental delay and/or autism and their families.

Early biomarkers predictive of autism

This study aims to investigate the cellular and molecular profiles of the immune system in infants at high/low risk for Autism, as determined through clinical assessment.

Psychometric evaluation of the Comprehensive Autistic Trait Inventory in autistic and non-autistic adults

Measures of autistic traits are only useful – for pre-diagnostic screening, exploring individual differences, and gaining personal insight – if they efficiently and accurately assess autism as currently conceptualised while maintaining psychometric validity across different demographic groups. We recruited 1322 autistic and 1279 non-autistic adults who varied in autism status (non-autistic, diagnosed autistic, self-identifying autistic) and gender (cisgender men, cisgender women, gender diverse) to assess the psychometric properties of the Comprehensive Autistic Trait Inventory, a recently developed measure of autistic traits that examines six trait domains using 42 self-report statements.

Evaluation of the Acceptability and Feasibility of the Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised (SACS-R) Tool for Early Identification of Autism in Preterm Infants

Preterm birth is associated with a 3.3-fold increased likelihood of autism diagnosis, with lower gestational age conferring higher likelihood. In Australia, autism is typically diagnosed at around age four, potentially missing the optimal neuroplasticity window before age two. The Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised (SACS-R) tool identifies early autism signs in children aged 11-30 months, enabling pre-emptive intervention.

Accuracy of a 2-minute eye-tracking assessment to differentiate young children with and without autism

Eye-tracking could expedite autism identification/diagnosis through standardisation and objectivity. We tested whether Gazefinder autism assessment, with Classification Algorithm derived from gaze fixation durations, would have good accuracy (area under the curve [AUC] ≥ 0.80) to differentiate 2-4-year-old autistic from non-autistic children.