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WA duo recognised as world’s most frequent autism research collaborators of the decadeDirector of CliniKids, Professor Andrew Whitehouse, and Professor Murray Maybery, have been identified as the world’s most frequent autism research collaborators of the decade.
Sibling Support and Teen Talk Studies form
Research
Inner speech impairment in children with autism is associated with greater nonverbal than verbal skillsWe present a new analysis of Whitehouse, Maybery, and Durkin's (2006, Experiment 3) data on inner speech in children with autism (CWA).
Research
A GWAS for grip strength in cohorts of children-Advantages of analysing young participants for this traitGrip strength is a proxy measure for muscular strength and a predictor for bone fracture risk among other diseases. Previous genome-wide association studies have been conducted in large cohorts of adults focusing on scores collected for the dominant hand, therefore increasing the likelihood of confounding effects by environmental factors.
Research
Empathy and Autism: Establishing the Structure and Different Manifestations of Empathy in Autistic Individuals Using the Perth Empathy ScaleThere is a common mischaracterisation that autistic individuals have reduced or absent empathy. Measurement issues may have influenced existing findings on the relationships between autism and empathy, and the structure of the empathy construct in autism remains unclear.
Research
Child and Family Characteristics Associated with Symptoms of Anxiety in Autistic Children: A Biobank StudyAutistic children have an increased likelihood of anxiety, but more research is needed on the characteristics that predict various types of anxiety in this population.
Research
Parsing the heterogeneity of social motivation in autismSocial motivation is posited as a key factor in the expression of the autism phenotype. However, lack of precision in both conceptualization and measurement has impeded a thorough understanding of its diverse presentation and associated outcomes. This study addresses this gap by identifying subgroups of autism characterized by deficits in distinct facets of social motivation, relative to normative benchmarks.
Research
Caregiver sensitivity predicts infant language use, and infant language complexity predicts caregiver language complexity, in the context of possible emerging autismWhile theory supports bidirectional effects between caregiver sensitivity and language use, and infant language acquisition-both caregiver-to-infant and also infant-to-caregiver effects-empirical research has chiefly explored the former unidirectional path. In the context of infants showing early signs of autism, we investigated prospective bidirectional associations with 6-min free-play interaction samples collected for 103 caregivers and their infants (mean age 12-months; and followed up 6-months later).
Research
The effects of prenatal bisphenol A exposure on brain volume of children and young miceBisphenol A (BPA) is a synthetic chemical used for the manufacturing of plastics, epoxy resin, and many personal care products. This ubiquitous endocrine disruptor is detectable in the urine of over 80% of North Americans.