Telehealth assessment of autism in preschoolers using the TELE-ASD-PEDS: A pilot clinical investigation.

Purpose: Appropriate early intervention is beneficial but dependent on accurate and timely diagnoses. This has been affected by long waiting lists for face-to-face clinical services, in part due to pandemic lockdowns, with telehealth introduced in many services to continue clinical services. This pilot clinical study investigated the feasibility of integrating a specially-designed telepractice autism assessment tool into a tertiary diagnostic service.

Access and barriers to supports for children and caregivers attending public child developmental assessment services: Findings from the Sydney child neurodevelopment research registry.

Families can spend years waiting for a developmental assessment. We sought to understand supports caregivers had accessed by the time of their child's first multi-disciplinary developmental assessment, the supports caregivers wanted, and the barriers caregivers reported to accessing these supports. We also sought to understand how government funding schemes (the National Disability Insurance Scheme) and sociodemographic factors influenced access to supports.

Eye-tracking correlates of response to joint attention in preschool children with autism spectrum disorder.

Background: A number of differences in joint attention behaviour between children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) individuals have previously been documented.

Method: We use eye-tracking technology to assess response to joint attention (RJA) behaviours in 77 children aged 31 to 73 months. We conducted a repeated-measures analysis of variance to identify differences between groups.

Risk of Developmental Coordination Disorder in 8- and 9-Year-Olds Following Newborn Cardiac and Non-Cardiac Surgery.

Purpose: To investigate the risk of developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and motor impairment for children aged 8 to 9 years following newborn surgery.

Methods: Prospective longitudinal cohort study. Motor proficiency and risk of DCD were assessed using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (second edition) for children born 37 weeks of gestation and older who had undergone newborn cardiac surgery (CS) or non-cardiac surgery (NCS).

Quality and accessibility of written development assessment reports provided to caregivers in a publicly funded child developmental assessment service.

Despite long wait times, public paediatric developmental assessment services remain crucial for assessment of children. Assessment is a critical opportunity to guide the placement of supports to improve outcomes. There is little research examining how clinical assessment services conduct their assessments, present results and write reports to families.

Barriers and facilitators: Clinicians' opinions and experiences of telehealth before and after their use of a telehealth platform for child language assessment.

Background: Despite emerging evidence of validity and reliability, speech and language therapists' (SLT) uptake of telehealth has been limited and barriers remain to the effective and confident use of this service model. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant disruption to essential health services, including speech and language therapy assessment and intervention, meaning that telehealth must now be considered as part of the suite of service delivery options for all clinicians.

Aims: To explore the perceived barriers and facilitators of telehealth among community paediatric SLTs before and after their use of a telehealth platform with an embedded standardised assessment tool.

Clinician experiences using standardised language assessments via telehealth.

: Telehealth is rapidly becoming an essential part of speech-language pathologists' core business, and yet the experiences and opinions of community-based therapists in using telehealth remain relatively unknown. This paper describes a recent study in which speech-language pathologists were provided with access to a formal language assessment within a telehealth platform and asked to provide feedback about their experiences.: Twenty-seven speech-language pathologists in paediatric practice were recruited via callouts on social media, community contacts and professional networks.

A randomised double-blind trial of cognitive training for the prevention of psychopathology in at-risk youth.

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of online cognitive training as a means of reducing psychopathology in at-risk youth.

Methods: In a double-blind randomised controlled trial, 228 youths (mean age = 18.6, 74.

Are boys and girls just different? Gender differences in the Movement Assessment Battery for Children, 2nd edition (M ABC-2) suggests that they are.

Introduction: The second edition of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M ABC-2) is a standardised, norm referenced assessment that is frequently used by therapists to identify children with motor difficulties. The norms for the M ABC-2 were derived from a sample of children in the United Kingdom (UK) and are combined across the age groups for boys and girls. The aims of this research were to investigate gender differences in the performance of 8- and 9-year-old Australian children and if the norms in our cohort differed from UK-based M ABC-2 norms.

Literacy Assessment Via Telepractice Is Comparable to Face-to-Face Assessment in Children with Reading Difficulties Living in Rural Australia.

Unlabelled: Background/Introduction: Literacy difficulties have significant long-term impacts on individuals, and therefore early identification and intervention are critical. Access to experienced professionals who conduct standardized literacy assessments with children is limited in rural and remote areas. The emerging literature supports the feasibility of using telepractice to overcome barriers to accessing specialist literacy assessment.

Prediction of three year outcomes using the Bayley-III for surgical, cardiac and healthy Australian infants at one year of age.

Background: Previous predictive research has predominantly focussed on infants who are preterm, low birth weight, who have a specific condition or who have undergone a specific procedure.

Aim: This study investigated the ability of outcomes at one year of age to predict outcomes at three years using the Bayley-III for infants who have undergone early major cardiac surgery (CS) or non-cardiac (NC) surgery and their healthy peers.

Study Design: Participants who were part of the Development After Infant Surgery (DAISy) study who had complete Bayley-III assessments at one and three years of age were included in the analyses.

Parent-reported differences between school-aged girls and boys on the autism spectrum.

More boys than girls are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder; however, there are conflicting findings about whether they differ in their presentation. This study involved a survey of parents of school-aged children on the autism spectrum (171 parents of girls and 163 parents of boys) that was distributed via social media. The surveys provided insights regarding the characteristics of boys and girls (as perceived by parents) as well as some demographic information.

Telehealth language assessments using consumer grade equipment in rural and urban settings: Feasible, reliable and well tolerated.

Introduction Telehealth can be an effective way to provide speech pathology intervention to children with speech and language impairments. However, the provision of reliable and feasible standardised language assessments via telehealth to establish children's needs for intervention and to monitor progress has not yet been well established. Further, there is limited information about children's reactions to telehealth.

Neurodevelopmental Outcome and Treatment Efficacy of Benzoate and Dextromethorphan in Siblings with Attenuated Nonketotic Hyperglycinemia.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of sodium benzoate and dextromethorphan treatment on patients with the attenuated form of nonketotic hyperglycinemia.

Study Design: Families were recruited with 2 siblings both affected with attenuated nonketotic hyperglycinemia. Genetic mutations were expressed to identify residual activity.

A double-blind randomized controlled trial of oxytocin nasal spray in Prader Willi syndrome.

Individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) have a significant reduction in the number of oxytocin-producing neurons (42%) in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus. A number of animal studies and observations of humans show that lesions in this region can produce PWS-like symptoms. Given the evidence for potential oxytocin deficiency, we tested the effects of a course of intranasal oxytocin on PWS symptoms.

Validation of the emotion regulation and social skills questionnaire for young people with autism spectrum disorders.

The current study aims to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Emotion Regulation and Social Skills Questionnaire (ERSSQ), a rating scale designed specifically to assess the social skills of young people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The participants were 84 children and young adolescents with ASD, aged between 7.97 and 14.

How does social functioning in the early stages of psychosis relate to depression and social anxiety?

Aims: The study aims to compare social functioning in young people considered to be at risk of psychosis with those meeting criteria for first episode psychosis (FEP) and controls, and to determine the association between social functioning and positive and negative symptoms, depressive symptoms, and social anxiety.

Methods: This study examined social functioning in 20 individuals at risk of psychosis, 20 FEP patients and 20 healthy controls. Social functioning was measured using the Social Functioning Scale and World Health Organization Disability Assessment Scale.

Impaired MMN/P3a complex in first-episode psychosis: cognitive and psychosocial associations.

Mismatch negativity (MMN) is a neurophysiological indicator of the brain's ability to extract relevant information from an irrelevant background. The P3a orienting response often accompanies MMN in deviance detection paradigms. Both MMN and P3a have been described as reliable biomarkers of schizophrenia.