On social vulnerability and social interaction style in neurodevelopmental conditions, with Ellen Ridley

Marie Martel is a cognitive neuroscientist at Royal Holloway, University of London, who specialises in understanding how the brain controls imagined and real movements performed with the hand or a tool, and how this develops with age. During this podcast she chats to Lou about a piece of work looking at how children with Dyspraxia / Developmental Coordination Disorder use tools to perform movements and how this interacts with the representation they have of their body.If you want to know more about Marie’s research, you can follow her on Twitter @Martel_MF or have a look at her website.Do not hesitate to get in touch if you want to collaborate!The paper discussed in this episode is:Martel, M., Boulenger, V., Koun, E., Finos, L., Farnè, A., & Roy, A. C. (2022). Body schema plasticity is altered in Developmental Coordination Disorder. Neuropsychologia, 166, 108136. 

Suzi Sapiets is a postdoctoral research associate at the Tizard Cen​tre, University of Kent, who specialises in autism, learning disabilities and improving access to support. During this podcast Suzi chats with Lou about her PhD research looking at access to early support for young children with suspected or diagnosed developmental delays, autism and learning disabilities.To find out more about Suzi and her research, you can follow her on Twitter @suzijsapiets, or read her blog post for the Mental Elf on neurodivergence and mental health. Suzi also spoke at the Embracing Complexity Special Interest Research Group webinar on neurodivergence and mental health, find the recording and resources here. We also mentioned Cerebra's toolkit on accessing public services: https://cerebra.org.uk/download/accessing-public-services-toolkit/---The paper discussed in this episode is:Sapiets, S. J., Hastings, R. P., Stanford, C., & Totsika, V. (2022). Families’ access to early intervention and supports for children with developmental disabilities. Journal of Early Intervention, 0(0). You can also find a related narrative review here:Sapiets, S. J., Totsika, V. & Hastings, R. P. (2021). Factors influencing access to early intervention for families of children with developmental disabilities: A narrative review.  Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 34(3). 695-711. 

Saloni Krishnan is a developmental cognitive neuroscientist at Royal Holloway who specialises in the neural basis of developmental language disorder. During this podcast she talks to Lou about her new finding of reduced myelin in children with developmental language disorder (DLD). You can follow Saloni on Twitter @salonikrishnan, check out her lab website, or read about the project to find out more about her research.---The paper discussed in this podcast is:Krishnan, K., Cler, G. J., Smith, H. J., Willis, H. E., Asaridou, S. S., Healy, M. P., Papp, D., & Watkins, K. E. (2022). Quantitative MRI reveals differences in striatal myelin in children with DLD. eLife 11:e74242

Dr Keren MacLennan is an Assistant Professor in Neurodiversity, in Department of Psychology, at Durham University. Her research interests are related to mental health, autism, and sensory reactivity differences, and her research is conducted using open science frameworks and co-production approaches.  During this podcast episode she chats to Lou about a participatory piece of research investigating the sensory experiences of autistic adults in public spaces.  You can follow Keren on Twitter @KerenMacLennan to find out more about her research, and you can view the Sensory Street website about the overall project here.---The paper discussed in this podcast is:MacLennan, K., Woolley, C., @21andsensory, E., Heasman, B., Starns, J., George, B. & Manning, C.  (2022) “It is a big spider web of things”: Sensory experiences of autistic adults in public spaces. Autism in Adulthood.

Dr Emily McDougal is a developmental psychologist, currently based at University of Surrey, who specialises in neurodiversity and cognition in the classroom. During this podcast episode she chats to Lou about a project looking at understanding and supporting ADHD in the classroom, from the perspective of children with ADHD and their teachers.You can follow Emily on Twitter @mimsiemcd to find out more about her research, and you can view the EPIC project page here.---The paper discussed in this podcast is:McDougal, E., Tai, C., Stewart, T. M., Booth, J. N., & Rhodes, S. M. (2022). Understanding and supporting attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the primary school classroom: Perspectives of children with ADHD and their teachers. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 

Rosie is a post-doctoral researcher at UCL specialising in the mental health of care-experienced young people. During this podcast she chats to Lou about a piece of work looking at potential biases mental health practitioners may have in the diagnosis and treatment of mental health difficulties for young people in care, as well as a connected post-doc project, which is an active implementation trial investigating the facilitators and barriers to using trauma-focused CBT with care-experienced young people.TW: for this episode, as we discuss PTSD in care experienced children and trauma-focused therapies. ---You can follow Rosie on Twitter @rosie_mcguire to find out more about her research, and the progress of the active implementation trial.---The paper discussed in this podcast is:McGuire, R., Halligan, S. L., Meiser-Stedman, R., Durbin, L., & Hiller, R. M. (2022). Differences in the diagnosis and treatment decisions for children in care compared to their peers: An experimental study on post-traumatic stress disorder. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 61(4), 1075-1088.

Sue Fletcher-Watson is a Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Edinburgh, and Director of the Salvesen Mindroom Research Centre. Sue is also the creator of the PsychologiCALL podcast, and hosted both Season 1 and 2! During this podcast she chats to Lou about a review paper, co-authored with autistic contributors, that outlines key considerations for developing inclusive research. This paper serves as an introduction to participatory research. Sue and Lou also chat about a second paper, which reports on the outcomes of a UK seminar series focusing on participatory research, which was co-produced by autistic and non-autistic people.  ---You can follow Sue on Twitter @suereviews, and you can find out more about Sue and her research here.---The papers discussed in this podcast are:Fletcher-Watson, S., Brook, K., Hallett, S., Murray, F., & Crompton, C. J. (2021). Inclusive practices for neurodevelopmental research. Current Developmental Disorders Reports, 8(2), 88-97.Fletcher-Watson, S., Adams, J., Brook, K., Charman, T., Crane, L., Cusack, J., ... & Pellicano, E. (2019). Making the future together: Shaping autism research through meaningful participation. Autism, 23(4), 943-953.

For the final episode of season 3, Louisa brings you a brief overview of the episodes from this season.At the end of every episode, the guest gets asked if they have advice for students and early career researchers. In this season finale, you can find all of this advice in one handy place.---To keep up to date with PsychologiCALL, to find out when the next season is coming out, or if you'd like to be a guest yourself, you can follow Louisa on Twitter @ljthomas1991 and you can find her contact details on her website. 

Ellen Ridley is PhD student in the Centre for Neurodiversity & Development at Durham University. The aim of her research is to better understand the factors that impact on social vulnerability in children and young people with Williams syndrome (WS).  During this podcast she chats to Louisa about a piece of work which takes a cross-syndrome approach to exploring social vulnerability and social interaction style in neurodevelopmental conditions, including WS.---You can follow Ellen on Twitter @ellenridley, and you can find out more about Ellen and her research on her webpage at Durham. You can also follow the lab group on Twitter at @DurhamDevDis.The ECR Developmental network that was mentioned in this podcast can also be found on Twitter @ECR_DevNetwork.---The paper discussed in this podcast is:Ridley, E., Riby, D. M. & Leekam, S. R. (2020). A cross-syndrome approach to the social phenotype of neurodevelopmental disorders: Focusing on social vulnerability and social interaction style. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 100, 103604Click here for an open access version.

Beatriz López is a Reader in Developmental Psychology at the University of Portsmouth, who specialises in the double empathy problem in autism, heterogeneity in autism and employment. During this podcast she chats to Louisa about an evaluation of a set of employment profiling tools to enhance employment opportunities for autistic people.---You can follow the Centre for Interaction, Development and Diversity on Twitter @UoP_CIDD to find out more about ongoing related research. You can also check out the webpage for the Autism Centre for Research and Employment where you can find more about the ongoing projects and services offered.---The paper discussed in this podcast is:López, B., Kargas, N., Udell, J., Rubín, T., Burgess, L., Dew, D., McDonald, I., O’Brien, A. & Templeton-Mepstead, K. (2021). Evaluation of the ACE employment programme: Helping employers to make tailored adjustments for their autistic employees. Advances in Autism, 7(1), 3-15.