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Sally Grauaug

Senior Speech Pathologist

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IDEA (Intellectual Disability Exploring Answers) Database

News & Events

Therapy with babies boosts social development

A child-led therapy that supports the social development of babies showing early signs of autism has found a significant reduction in social communication difficulties in babies who received the therapy, according to new research led by CliniKids at The Kids Research Institute Australia.

Research

Genome-Wide Analyses of Vocabulary Size in Infancy and Toddlerhood: Associations With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Literacy, and Cognition-Related Traits

The number of words children produce (expressive vocabulary) and understand (receptive vocabulary) changes rapidly during early development, partially due to genetic factors. Here, we performed a meta-genome-wide association study of vocabulary acquisition and investigated polygenic overlap with literacy, cognition, developmental phenotypes, and neurodevelopmental conditions, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Research

Sex-Specific Effects of Birth Weight on Longitudinal Behavioral Outcomes: A Mendelian Randomization Approach Using Polygenic Scores

It is unclear whether sex differences in behavior arising from birth weight (BW) are genuine because of the cross-sectional nature and potential confounding in previous studies. We aimed to test whether sex differences associated with BW phenotype were reproducible using a Mendelian randomization approach, i.e., association between polygenic score (PGS) for BW and behavior outcomes across childhood and adolescence.

Research

Co-design of the neurodevelopment assessment scale

Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) have high comorbidity rates and shared etiology. Nevertheless, NDD assessment is diagnosis-driven and focuses on symptom profiles of individual disorders, which hinders diagnosis and treatment. There is also no evidence-based, standardized transdiagnostic approach currently available to provide a full clinical picture of individuals with NDDs. The pressing need for transdiagnostic assessment led to the development of the Neurodevelopment Assessment Scale.

Research

Genetic association study of childhood aggression across raters, instruments, and age

Childhood aggressive behavior (AGG) has a substantial heritability of around 50%. Here we present a genome-wide association meta-analysis (GWAMA) of childhood AGG, in which all phenotype measures across childhood ages from multiple assessors were included. We analyzed phenotype assessments for a total of 328 935 observations from 87 485 children aged between 1.5 and 18 years, while accounting for sample overlap.

Research

Do sex hormones at birth predict later-life economic preferences? Evidence from a pregnancy birth cohort study: Hormones at birth and preferences

Economic preferences may be shaped by exposure to sex hormones around birth. Prior studies of economic preferences and numerous other phenotypic characteristics use digit ratios (2D : 4D), a purported proxy for prenatal testosterone exposure, whose validity has recently been questioned. We use direct measures of neonatal sex hormones (testosterone and oestrogen), measured from umbilical cord blood (n = 200) to investigate their association with later-life economic preferences (risk preferences, competitiveness, time preferences and social preferences) in an Australian cohort (Raine Study Gen2).

News & Events

Huge hospital burden for kids with intellectual disabilities

New research from the Telethon Institute has shown that children with an intellectual disability are up to 10x more likely to be admitted to hospital.

Research

Adult digit ratio (2D:4D) is not related to umbilical cord androgen or estrogen concentrations, their ratios or net bioactivity

Ratio of second digit length to fourth digit length (2D:4D) has been extensively used in human and experimental research as a marker of fetal sex steroid...