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Joondalup clinic news

CliniKids’ new clinic in the Joondalup area is coming along nicely and is on track to open around the middle of the year.

Autism Month!

April is Autism Month and to mark the occasion, we’re transforming our reception desk in the clinic to an AMAZING wall for our families to contribute to.

Client support at CliniKids

Nicki, Leah, Tracy, and Amy make up our wonderful Client Support team at CliniKids. The team was established in mid-2021 as services began to grow.

Frangipani Family Day a huge success!

CliniKids held its inaugural Frangipani Family Day recently – an event organised to honour the wonderful contribution of its much loved and dearly missed colleague, the late Kate Sorensen.

Meet the Client Support Team

The Client Support Team at CliniKids has some new faces! Nicki and Amy join our lovely Tracy.

Welcome to the team Leah!

Meet Leah – the latest addition to the CliniKids team. We asked Leah, our new Operations Manager, a couple of questions to get to know her.

Eye Gaze in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Review of Neural Evidence for the Eye Avoidance Hypothesis

Reduced eye contact early in life may play a role in the developmental pathways that culminate in a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. However, there are contradictory theories regarding the neural mechanisms involved. According to the amygdala theory of autism, reduced eye contact results from a hypoactive amygdala that fails to flag eyes as salient. However, the eye avoidance hypothesis proposes the opposite-that amygdala hyperactivity causes eye avoidance. This review evaluated studies that measured the relationship between eye gaze and activity in the 'social brain' when viewing facial stimuli.

Effect of Preemptive Intervention on Developmental Outcomes Among Infants Showing Early Signs of Autism: A Randomized Clinical Trial of Outcomes to Diagnosis

Intervention for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) typically commences after diagnosis. No trial of an intervention administered to infants before diagnosis has shown an effect on diagnostic outcomes to date.

Toward better characterization of restricted and unusual interests in youth with autism

Despite being highly prevalent among people with autism, restricted and unusual interests remain under-researched and poorly understood. This article confirms that restricted interests are very frequent and varied among children and adolescents with autism. It also further extends current knowledge in this area by characterizing the relationship between the presence, number, and type of restricted interests with chronological age, sex, cognitive functioning, and social and communication symptoms.

Facial asymmetry in parents of children on the autism spectrum

Greater facial asymmetry has been consistently found in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) relative to children without ASD. There is substantial evidence that both facial structure and the recurrence of ASD diagnosis are highly heritable within a nuclear family. Furthermore, sub-clinical levels of autistic-like behavioural characteristics have also been reported in first-degree relatives of individuals with ASD, commonly known as the 'broad autism phenotype'.