Research Interests
Prior to completing my PhD I spent 18 months at the Pervasive Developmental
Disorders (PDD) Unit at Stanford University working in the area of Savant
Syndrome. While there I became interested in PDDs and more specifically
Autistic Disorder. The link between Autistic Disorder and Savant Syndrome
is well recognised. While at Stanford I was trained in the Autism Diagnostic
Interview with the aim being to continue my involvement with the Stanford
PDD team in an International genetics project looking at the genetic determinants
of Autism. While working with families that had a strong familial disposition
to autism I detected autism in younger family members (i.e., less that
2 years) that had not yet received a diagnosis. I believed this failure
to diagnose was due to the fact that most professionals do not know what
to look for in a very young child. In the absence of a biological marker,
we continue to diagnose autism in terms of generic criteria reflecting
broadly based behavioral manifestations. Although these manifestations
are well-recognised in older children, the clinical picture of very young
children is not as apparent. It was evident that current assessment tools
do not appreciate developmental trends in the manifestation of the disorder,
relying instead on the demonstration of secondary deficits. With the aid
of a grant from the Channel 7 Medical Research Foundation and the Autism
SA I have been able to develop a Early Intervention Research Program at
Flinders that is actively involved in identifying the core-deficit linked
behaviour of the disorder and thus enabling early recognition. The culmination
of this research has led to the development of a screening tool for Autistic
Disorder suitable for use in children as young as 12 months. This tool
is known as the Autism Detection in Early Childhood (ADEC) and is published
through the Australian Council of Education Research.
In February 2003 I established an Early
Intervention Research Program at Flinders University, aiming to provide
information and services that make possible the commencement of home based
therapy for autistic children. It will also serve to provide empirical
data regarding the impact that early intervention has on reducing core
deficit symptoms of autistic disorder. This program has now been packaged
and will shortly be published through ACER under the name of StartRight.
I am currently undertaking research to investigate the efficacy our innovative
Early Intervention Research Program (EIRP). The EIRP uses current best
practice behavioural techniques to reduce the severity of childhood autistic
behaviours. Key features of the EIRP are its focus on specific behaviours
central to the disorder, its careful use of learning principles, and its
applicability for use with very children.
Due to the development of the ADEC the EIRP is now seeing children as
young as 18 months. The intervention strategy used in the program is based
on the work of Ivar Lovaas (1966) and has already been shown to be successful
in pilot work using older children in the EIRP and in other research studies
(e.g., Dawson & Osterling, 1997; McEachin, et al., 1993). If the efficacy
of the EIRP can be empirically demonstrated it will not only enhance our
understanding of the deficits associated with autism but will also facilitate
early diagnosis, and allow the development of improved interventions.
Further, it will provide an important model upon which early intervention
programs within Australia and possibly around the world can be based.
Together with colleagues from the Sansom Institute UniSA we are working
toward the development of a test to diagnose and phenotype autism. This
novel project will investigate metabonomic profiles of children with autism
and link these with clinical data to develop a diagnostic and phenotyping
tool. Successful development of such a tool will enable a diagnosis to
be confirmed earlier, appropriate interventions implemented and therefore
optimise outcomes for individuals with autism.
This page contains a number of links to interesting
pages that are relevant to my research. |
Selected Publications
Young, R. L. Williamson, Partington, C., Petkov, J., & Morrell, (in
submission, Autism). The efficacy of an intensive early intervention program
for young children with Autistic Disorder.
Martins, Y., Young, R. L., & Robson, D. C. (2008) Feeding and eating
behaviors in children with autism and typically developing children. Journal
of Autism Development Disorders, doi 10.1007/s10803-008-0583-5.
Clifford, S., Young, R., & Williamson, P. (2007). Assessing the early
characteristics of Autistic Disorder using video analysis. Journal
of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 301-313.
Delinicolas, E., & Young, R. (2007). Joint attention and language
social relating and stereotypical behaviours in children with autistic
disoder. Autism, 11, 389-400.
Young, R. L. (2007). Autism detection in early childhood (ADEC) manual.
Australian Council of Educational Research, Camberwell, Victoria, Australia.
Angley, M., McKinnon, R., Young, R., & Evans, A. (2006). Children
and autism: Can the pharmacist help? Australian Pharmacis, 25,
468-472.
Hedley, D. & Young, R. (2006). Social Comparison and Depression in
Children and Adolescents with Asperger's Syndrome. Autism, 10,
139-153.
Lim, Yun Zi., Angley, M., Tait, P., Young, R., & McKinnon, R. (2006).
Immunisation and autism: What's the story? Australian Pharmacist,
25, 554-558.
Young, R. L., Williamson, P., Brewer, N., Ettridge, K., & Goren,
T. (2006). The early detection of pre-verbal autistic characteristics.
Psicologia Iberoamericana, 14, 11-20.
Young R, Ridding M. (2005). Neurological Processes Underpinning savant
skills. In Sough, C. (Ed). The Neurobiology of exceptionality, Plenum/Kluwer
Young, R., Ridding, M., & Morrell, T. (2004). Switching Skills on
by turning off the brain Neurocase, 215-222.
Young R, Brewer N, Pattison C. (2003). Early Behavioural Abnormalities
in Children with Autistic Disorder. Autism, 7:125-143
Young R, Brewer N. (2002). Conceptual issues in the classification
and assessment of autistic disorder. In L. M. Glidden (Ed.). International
Review of Research in Mental Retardation (Vol. 23). San Diego, CA: Academic
Press.
Further details on research grants, publications,
etc. |
