Our research seeks to better understand the role of differences in brain and cognitive functioning in explaining variability in children's emotional, social and behavioural development. We use a variety of methodologies such as EEG, eye-tracking, behavioural tasks and questionnaires. We combine this with advanced statistical methods that can handle complex and longitudinal data such as structural equation models.
See below for a selection of our current and previous projects.
The SENSOR project seeks to understand how children make sense of everyday visual, tactile, and auditory sensory stimuli. For example, why are some children really bothered by the feeling of a clothing label on the back of their jumper, whereas others don't seem to notice. Better understanding of early sensory development will inform how best to support children with sensory-related difficulties. The SENSOR project takes a multi-modal approach to measure sensory processing, including eye-tracking, cognitive assessments and electroencephalography (EEG). This project also uses brand-new virtual reality (VR) technology combined with child-friendly neuroimaging to understand how children's brains process different sensory information in naturalistic settings. We are currently looking for 3 year old children to take part! Download our information sheet to see what taking part involves, click on our Participate pages to learn more about the Toddlerlab, or email us directly at cbcd-sensor-study@bbk.ac.ac.uk. See this link for a short video of what taking part involves https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUTSnmnF5_c
This project sought to understand what researchers should focus on to better understand the overlap of disordered eating and autism/ADHD. We conducted an online survey, followed up with an in-depth workshop, to hear from people with lived experience what they felt the Top 10 Priorities for future research should be. We hope this will encourage funding and research in this field to be in line with stakeholder priorities.
This project sought to map profiles of cognition, motivation and attention across children with differences in social and emotional needs. Often in childhood mental health, many diagnoses co-occur, making it hard to understand which profiles of cognitive functioning are specific to a given condition and which be markers of transdiagnostic vulnerability. This project collected in-depth information about profiles of cognitive functioning in a sample of 10 - 16 year olds, enhanced for social, emotional and mental health difficulties.
This fellowship focused on applying complex statistical models to better estimate and understand developmental mechanisms and trajectories relevant to autistic mental health
Collaboration with Pathways Group:
Collaboration with BASIS Group:
This work was led by Professor Emily Simonoff at King's College London. The aim of the project was to better understand the stability and predictors of mental health challenges in autistic youth.
