The ADEC is a brief, play-based screening tool for the assessment of autism in children aged 12-36 months. It was developed based on normative data from Australian children and has been found to demonstrate good psychometric properties. However, the ADEC was originally designed to be administered by a clinician in a clinical setting, and thus, access to clinicians still remains a barrier to early diagnosis for many children, particularly those in rural and remote areas. This project aims to validate a protocol for a virtual version of the ADEC, in which the play-based tasks are administered by the child's caregiver in their own home with support from a clinician through a live video conference. Such a tool would increase the accessibility of diagnostic assessments to young children in remote areas and to those affected by current COVID-19 travel restrictions. This project is supported by the Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation. 

Autistic individuals have been reported to experience elevated rates of bullying, negative sexual experiences, and childhood maltreatment when compared to their non-autistic peers. Despite this, little is known about the response of autistic people to trauma and the long-term impact of these adverse experiences on the social and emotional wellbeing of autistic individuals. This project aims to better understand: (1) how autistic young adults experience and respond to stressful life events, and (2) pathways through which autistic traits may increase an individual’s vulnerability to developing PTSD symptomology following a stressful event. Understanding the relationship between autism and perceptions of trauma will assist in identifying risk factors for PTSD among autistic young adults and shed light on areas of intervention that may require greater emphasis when working with an autistic population. This project is supported by the Breakthrough Mental Health Research Foundation. 

Many researchers have suggested that difficulties reading the minds of others – referred to as Theory of Mind – is a feature of autism. Such difficulties might make autistic individuals particularly vulnerable to being lured into criminal activity or becoming a victim of crime. In this project – funded by the Australian Research Council – we examine whether the presence of autistic traits, autism or Theory of Mind limitations are the crucial influences.

This project – funded by the Australian Research Council – explores the possibility that nonverbal and verbal behaviours that characterise many individuals with autism may – if displayed in interactions with police or in a courtroom – negatively affect the way in which they are perceived and bias the outcomes of those interactions.

Being able to read other people’s emotions during the course of social interactions is crucial for adaptive social functioning. This ARC-funded project investigates the effectiveness of autistic adults’ recognition of emotions, their awareness of any limitations in this area and the appropriateness of their empathic reactions to others’ emotions.