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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.

Nutrition in early life interacts with genetic risk to influence preadult behaviour in the Raine Study

Early life nutrition is associated with child behaviour; however, the interplay with genetic vulnerability is understudied. We hypothesised that psychiatric genetic risk interacted with early nutrition to predict behavioural problems in childhood and adolescence.

Circulating thyroid hormones and metabolites in children with autism spectrum disorder

Thyroid hormones affect neurological development and function, but detailed studies of thyroid hormones and metabolites in autism are lacking. The objective was t characterize thyroid function and metabolism in autistic children.

Protocol for a feasibility and acceptability trial of Bloom, a co-produced and co-facilitated parent group to enhance the quality of life and well-being of young autistic children

The autistic and autism communities have identified improving the quality of life and well-being of autistic people as a key priority. Despite this, to date, there are no evidence-based supports for autistic children which specifically focus on improvements in these areas.

Autism

Characterised by varying degrees of difficulties in communication skills and social abilities, one in every 100 individuals will have a diagnosis of an autism spectrum condition. While autism is known to run in families, the exact causes remain unknown.

Parenting satisfaction and broader autism phenotype associated with depression, anxiety and stress in caregivers of infants showing early autistic features

While parenting self-efficacy and broader autism phenotype (BAP) have been linked to caregiver depression, anxiety and stress at specific points in time, their influence on longer-term mental health trajectories remains unknown, especially for caregivers who participate in support programs for their infants with very-early autistic features.

Commentary: A spectrum for all? A response to Green et al. (2023), neurodiversity, autism and health care

The broadening of the clinical definition of autism over time-the so-called, autism spectrum-has run in parallel with the growth of a neurodiversity movement that has reframed the concept of autism entirely. Without a coherent and evidence-based framework through which both of these advances can be situated, the field is at risk of losing definition altogether.

Psychosocial and neurocognitive correlates of suicidal thoughts and behaviours amongst siblings of persons with and without neurodevelopmental conditions

Siblings of individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions (NDCs) have greater incidence of neuropsychiatric diagnoses and neurocognitive difficulties compared to siblings of persons without NDCs. Despite suicidality being labelled a global health crisis (WHO, 2014) and NDC siblings experiencing risk factors implicated in suicidality, no previous studies examined suicidality amongst adolescent and young adult siblings of persons with NDCs. Our study aimed to bridge this gap.

Interactions between the lipidome and genetic and environmental factors in autism

Autism omics research has historically been reductionist and diagnosis centric, with little attention paid to common co-occurring conditions (for example, sleep and feeding disorders) and the complex interplay between molecular profiles and neurodevelopment, genetics, environmental factors and health. Here we explored the plasma lipidome in 765 children (485 diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)) within the Australian Autism Biobank.

Parent-Child Interactions May Help to Explain Relations Between Parent Characteristics and Clinically Observed Child Autistic Behaviours

The 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.