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Research
Maternal Serum Vitamin D Levels During Pregnancy and Offspring Neurocognitive DevelopmentNew research links poor language to lack of Vitamin D in womb.
The Human Development and Community Wellbeing Team conducts research across the lifespan from conception, childhood, and youth to adulthood and the social determinants that impact and influence outcomes. The team’s focus is on the broader life course of individuals and communities within the family, school, and online environments, and includes economic evaluation of programs and outcomes.
Research
Screen Time and Parent-Child Talk When Children Are Aged 12 to 36 MonthsGrowing up in a language-rich home environment is important for children's language development in the early years. The concept of "technoference" (technology-based interference) suggests that screen time may be interfering with opportunities for talk and interactions between parent and child; however, limited longitudinal evidence exists exploring this association.
Research
Arcuate fasciculus and pre-reading language development in children with prenatal alcohol exposurePrenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) contributes to widespread neurodevelopmental challenges, including reading, and has been associated with altered white matter. Here, we aimed to investigate whether arcuate fasciculus development is associated with pre-reading language skills in young children with PAE.
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).
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Evidence for Distinct Cognitive Profiles in Autism Spectrum Disorders and Specific Language ImpairmentThis finding supports distinct cognitive profiles in ASD and SLI and may provide further evidence for distinct aetiological mechanisms in the two conditions.
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Heritability of Specific Language Impairment and Nonspecific Language Impairment at Ages 4 and 6 Years Across Phenotypes of Speech, Language, and Nonverbal CognitionNonverbal IQ is not on the same causal pathway as language impairments
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Adolescent education outcomes and maltreatment: The role of pre-existing adversity, level of child protection involvement, and school attendanceMaltreated children are at high risk for low educational achievement, however few studies have accounted for confounding risk factors that commonly co-occur (including child, family and neighbourhood risk factors) and results have been mixed, particularly for adolescents.
News & Events
The Kids Research Institute Australia researchers share in State Government science grantsFour The Kids Research Institute Australia researchers are among those who have received funding in the WA State Government's Merit Award Program announced today.
News & Events
Twins talk half as much at twoA world first study of language development in toddler twins confirms the widely held belief that twins start to talk later than single-born children.