Changing the landscape for people with autism: growing skills and knowledge in school and society
Contents 2 4 6 10 12 i ii
Director’s report The Centre Our research Building capacity Public impact Appendix A: 2014 Publications Apendix B: 2014 Presentations
Director’s Report At CRAE, we are committed to combining internationally-recognised scientific research on autism with new efforts to improve society’s response to the needs of autistic people and their families. 2014 saw us go from strength to strength in both regards. This was the year when we put international concerns right at the centre of our work. We began new projects with people in the USA, Nepal, Israel, Denmark, Japan and now India, ensuring that CRAE plays a leading part in this international conversation. And we are now successfully recruiting high-calibre graduate students and visiting students from overseas, including from India and South Korea. Our annual lecture continued this international theme. It was a fantastically thought-provoking investigation of ‘autism in Africa’, from the Oxford Professor Charles Newton, who has spent many years working with communities of autistic people, their families, medics and educators in Kenya. The lecture booked out within 24 hours of being advertised, showing just how much enthusiasm there is here in the UK for discovering how autism is understood and responded to all over the world. We also continued our work closer to home, of course. We pride ourselves on being a centre, which seeks to combine cutting-edge, original scientific research on autism with genuine
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engagement from the autism community in a way unrivalled by any other specialist autism research group. This means ensuring that this knowledge is translated so that it can make a real difference to people’s everyday lives. It also means making sure that autistic people, their family members and practitioners are able to participate in the decisions we make about what research to do. Our commitment and success in this regard was recognised by being awarded the Director’s Prize for Excellence in Public Engagement in Research here at the IOE. The award, issued annually, is given to the member of staff or team that the Director and senior colleagues consider has made the most exceptional and sustained contribution to the life and work of the IOE through furthering public engagement with its research. We were thrilled that Professor Chris Husbands, IOE Director, said, “As a result of CRAE’s work, we know more, and can do more things better to enhance the learning and lives of people with autism.” This year also saw the 5th anniversary of the opening of CRAE. In December 2014, we held a party to celebrate 5 years of CRAE and to thank those who initially made CRAE possible, including our funders, Clothworkers’ Foundation, Pears Foundation and Kirby Laing Foundation. We celebrated with cupcakes, and even CRAE branded
biscuits, at a party attended by many of our funders, the teachers and clinicians we have worked with and some of the families and autistic people who have helped in our research. We also heard some incredibly moving speeches from people who have worked at and with CRAE over the last five years. We are so proud that even in the short time we have been going, so many people have come through CRAE have gone on to find prestigious new jobs and research projects elsewhere. We noted this especially this year, when CRAE moved with the rest of the IOE into a new partnership with UCL, one of the world’s leading universities. We have made a great start in our first 5 years. But we all know there is still so much to do to enhance the lives of autistic people and their families. We are incredibly grateful to all those who continue to make the vital work that happens at CRAE possible, including the wonderful staff and students on our team and the amazing support of the autism community. We very much look forward to working with you all as we continue our efforts in the years ahead.
Dr Liz Pellicano Director
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CRAE The Centre The Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE) is a partnership between the UCL Institute of Education, the leading centre for education and social research in the UK, and Ambitious about Autism, the national charity for children and young people with autism. The centre itself was established in 2009 by generous donations from The Clothworkers’ Foundation, Pears Foundation and Kirby Laing Foundation. Its mission is to “enhance the lives of autistic people and their families”. We conduct groundbreaking scientific research to enhance knowledge about interventions, education and outcomes for autistic children, young people and adults. We work to ensure that this knowledge is translated so that it can make a real difference to people’s everyday lives. And we work with professionals on the ground, like teachers and clinicians, and with those directly impacted by autism – children, young people, and adults with autism, their families and friends, and the wider public – to promote awareness, and acceptance, of autism.
People Members of CRAE in 2014 Staff Dr Liz Pellicano, Director Dr Anna Remington, Lecturer in Cognitive Science Abigail Croydon, Research Officer Dr Jake Fairnie, Postdoctoral Research Officer Dr Themis Karaminis, Postdoctoral Research Officer Lorcan Kenny, Research and Communication Officer Lenny Neil, Research Officer Owen Parsons, Research Officer
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Students Eilidh Cage, PhD student Cathy Manning, PhD student Katie Gaudion, PhD student Nanami Harada, PhD student Louise Edgington, DEdPsy student Tamara Brooks, DEdPsy student Rhiannon Yates, DEdPsy student Diana Seach, EdD student Rachel Walker, EdD student Amy Alexander, placement student Anna Rudnicka, placement student
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Our Research Can yoga help children with autism get ready to learn? Autism can affect an individual in important ways, like in senses that seem as if they are working too well or in difficulties coping with changes to routines or new situations. These can lead to feelings of ‘overload’ or excessive worry in children, which can have a huge impact on their lives. Yoga therapy, which focuses on breathing and relaxation, has been shown to help reduce anxiety in children with disabilities. Dr Liz Pellicano, Prof. Anthony Costello and Prof. Stephen Hailes from University College London and community partner, The Special Yoga Centre, were awarded a grant from IOE and UCL to conduct a preliminary study to see whether it is feasible to conduct a daily 12-week yoga intervention in schools to help promote the wellbeing of children with autism.
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The Get Ready to Learn yoga programme was implemented in five London classrooms with the help of many committed teachers and parents. Overall, the results showed that the programme showed potential. Indeed, one parent suggested that her son was demonstrating better self-regulation at home: “he takes himself away, lies down and closes his eyes to try and calm himself. I’m presuming this is coming from the yoga, it works most of the time”. The next step is to conduct a randomised controlled trial to determine whether the programme has a positive impact on children’s readiness to learn in the classroom.
These are a few of my favourite things: Special interests in autism Many autistic people have a particular subject that they are passionately interested in. These are officially termed circumscribed interests, and previous research has suggested that 75% of autistic children and over 85% of autistic adults have them. These special interests are often used to help motivate autistic children in the classroom, or to create individual treatment programs in the clinic. However, we know very little about why they arise, and if they are different from the passions and interests of non-autistic people. Dr Anna Remington and Dr Andrew Bayliss (from University of East Anglia) were awarded a small grant to investigate how autistic and non-autistic adolescents pay attention to items related to their passions and interests.
We created personalised computer games for each participant to find out how much people are distracted by pictures related to their interests when they are trying to perform another task. 40 adolescents with passions/ interests (e.g. Harry Potter fans, football fans, train enthusiasts etc.) took part in the research. We found that non-autistic people were very distracted by the pictures – even when trying to do a difficult task at the same time. However, we found that autistic people were good at ignoring the pictures when doing the more difficult tasks. This surprising finding might suggest that interest and expertise has a different impact on priority for attention in autism.
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My Life at School Children should have their say, whoever they are, whatever their needs. But for many children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, including autism, decisions may more often than not made for them, not with or by them. In a recent project funded by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner, we sought to understand the realities of the lives and experiences of young people with SEN and disabilities – the good and the bad – of growing up in school. We wanted to know how much they get to have a say in the decisions that affect their lives. We engaged with more than 80 children and young people, over 100 teaching and care staff, and more than 30 parents in 17 different residential special schools across England. Overall, although many missed their families, the children were happy in their
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current schools, felt part of the community engendered by the schools and felt looked after and treated well. This is important to recognize. Many of the schools also appeared to be doing an impressive job of eliciting children’s views. But we also found areas in which young people’s views either were not elicited or were not listened to – particularly with regard to their transition in and out of the schools. It is our duty to promote these young people’s right to have a say in their education and in other decisions that affect them. The results of our study show that it is possible. We now need to listen. Our report was launched at the House of Lords on 12th December 2014. You can read more about our My Life at School project here: http://bit.ly/LifeAtSchool
Our Research
Nepal study Autism is a global phenomenon. Yet little is known about its prevalence and the way it is perceived in low- and middle-income countries. Dr Liz Pellicano, Dr Michelle Heys and Professor Anthony Costello were awarded a small grant from IOE and UCL’s Incubator Fund to conduct the first study of its kind on people’s understanding of child development in Nepal, focusing specifically on autism. We spoke to more than 90 people, including parents of autistic and non-autistic children and a variety of education, health and allied health professionals, from rural and urban Nepal. The findings clearly show the lack of awareness of developmental conditions, such as autism. The results from this study have important implications for future work aiming to increase awareness and enhance support available for autistic children and families in Nepal.
The article, “What should autism research focus upon? Community views and priorities from the United Kingdom” by Liz Pellicano, Adam Dinsmore and Tony Charman was published in the journal, Autism, in 2014. It was in the top 10 downloaded articles for 2014, being downloaded 2,814 times. The related podcast by Liz Pellicano was the top downloaded podcast of 2014, downloaded 2,340 times! You can listen to it here: http://aut. sagepub.com/content/18/7/756/suppl/DC1
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Building Capacity The future of autism research and practice rests on the next generation of researchers and practitioners. In 2014, CRAE fostered the development of many students at different stages in their careers. PhD students Two of CRAE’s PhD students completed their degrees and successfully defended their theses. Dr Catherine Manning has now taken up a highly sought-after 3-year postdoctoral research fellowship at University College, University of Oxford and Dr Eilidh Cage is research fellow at the UK’s leading disability charity, Scope. We also had the pleasure of welcoming three new PhD students into the CRAE team. Felicity Sedgewick was awarded a prestigious PhD studentship funded by the Economic and Social Research Council to investigate the challenges faced by girls and young women on the autism spectrum, particularly with regards to their social experiences and friendships. Sachita Suryanarayan joined us from New Delhi on an IOE Centenary Scholarship. Sachita is interested in understanding the inclusive education experiences
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of children with autism particularly in terms of their friendship experiences and interactions with their peers. She will examine the inclusive education system within India, eliciting the perspectives of teachers, parents and young people themselves. Soojung (Kate) Jung, originally from South Korea, is interested in how autistic individuals regulate their emotions in their everyday lives and its impact on the development of internalising symptoms such as anxiety, depression and rumination. Her research will focus on a mindfulness-based intervention for reducing co-occurring internalising symptoms in autistic children and adolescents and improving children and young people’s ability to regulate their emotions. Visiting students In 2014, CRAE had the pleasure of hosting Nora Choque-Olsson, clinical psychologist and PhD student at the Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders at Karolinska Institutet (KIND). During her visit, Nora worked on several projects, including on our Medical Research Council
funded Seeing the World Differently project with Louise Neil and on a qualitative (interview) study looking at the social relationships of young people with autism with CRAE PhD student, Eilidh Cage. CRAE also hosted an undergraduate placement student from the University of Westminster, Anna Rudnicka, from October 2013 – June 2014. Before studying Psychology, Anna completed a foundation degree in film production. During her time at CRAE, Anna used both her scientific and creative skills to help with many projects such as the CRAE YouTube channel, website development and events. She was also heavily involved in a study designed to understand how children with autism perceive the world, through drawing. Amy Alexander, from Cardiff University, followed in her footsteps, joining us in October 2014. Autism module approved In 2014, the IOE approved a new module on autism science and its implications, especially designed for the MA in Special and Inclusive Education, and the first module on autism to be taught at the IOE. The Student Representatives consulted in the approval process of the module, spoke
enthusiastically about the idea and were particularly excited by the “myth busting” potential of a module that teaches people how to use new scientific discoveries on autism to explain complex, everyday autistic symptoms. We look forward to welcoming the first students on this module in April 2015. Theorising Autism Project workshop On 21st March 2014, CRAE hosted a oneday workshop on engaging autistic people in the research process as part of the Theorising Autism Project (TAP). TAP is a unique project that runs one-day seminars in universities, bringing autistic presenters and academics together to discuss how autism, and, more crucially, autistic people, are theorised and represented in research. More than 30 people attended the day, the majority of them autistic, who led discussions and participatory workshops that allowed for dialogue between autistic and non-autistic, academic and nonacademic, participants. These discussions highlighted the need for a focus on autistic led, critical investigations of what counts as ‘a good autistic life’ and who gets to define it.
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Public Impact Film Screening: Citizen Autistic Following the success of the 2013 screening of “Too Sane for This World” by William Davenport, we were absolutely delighted to host, together with Ambitious about Autism, the UK premiere of William’s second film, “Citizen Autistic”, on 2nd April 2014, World Autism Awareness Day. Metcalfe’s generous donation of popcorn … This film highlighted how important the autism self-advocacy movement is in ensuring that the agenda in autismrelevant organisations is in fact relevant to autistic people and their families. Kabie from Autism Rights Group Highland and Leo Capella led a thought-provoking discussion about the rights of autistic people and the extent to which their voice are – and should be – heard.
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World Autism Awareness Day On 2nd April 2014, people from across the globe rallied together to support World Autism Awareness Day. The day aims to promote awareness of autism to ensure that all autistic people, wherever they live, get the help and support they need. CRAE helped to promoted World Autism Awareness Day 2014 by supporting Ambitious about Autism’s #autismis Twitter campaign. Our image has since between re-tweeted more than 400 times and favourited more than 700 times.
5th CRAE Annual Lecture: Autism in Africa On 14th October 2014, we were delighted to host internationally-renowned researcher Professor Charles Newton, from the University of Oxford. Professor Newton spoke on “Autism in Africa” informed by his own work in East Africa over the past 25 years. He highlighted the lack of research done in this area, but showed that awareness of autism in sub-Saharan Africa has been growing over the past decade, largely driven by parent-led initiatives. Professor Newton talked about how most treatment options for autism on the Kenyan coast are delivered by traditional healers, and raised the problems of a shortage of trained clinicians and autism interventions. He stressed the need for low cost, scalable options in the area. It was clear from Professor Newton’s wonderfully stimulating lecture that
there is still so much work to do – both to understand autism and to help support autistic people and their families – in Africa and here in the UK. It was a jam-packed event, with many people on a waiting list. A recording is available on CRAE’s website, which you can access here: bit.ly/craelecture14
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Autism Employment Alliance
CRAE Christmas card competition
Only around 15% of people with autism are currently employed. Yet, autistic people have unique qualities and talents that could be of great value to employers. To address this issue, CRAE’s Dr Anna Remington and Dr Liz Pellicano were involved in setting up the Autism Employment Alliance (AEA) along with other academic researchers, autistic people, charities and employers.
We launched our first Christmas card design competition in 2013. It was such a success that we have held it again this year. We invited children and young people from the autism resource provisions and special schools with whom we work to design CRAE’s official Christmas card for 2014. We were inundated with amazing designs. It was a real struggle deciding on a winner!
The AEA is currently working on creating Rare Minds: a social enterprise run by and for autistic people that aims to address this issue, by matching people with autism to employers who need their particular abilities and skills. Rare Minds (originally AutieCorp) reached the semifinals of the European Social Innovation Competition: socialinnovationcompetition. eu and the prototype site is currently being built.
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Our card this year (pictured below) was designed by Joshua M Brown from Phoenix School. His entry, along with three brilliant runners up and a selection of others from some of our fantastic partner schools can be seen on CRAE’s Flickr page.
Public Impact
CRAE’s new website On February 14th 2014, we launched our brand new website: crae.ioe.ac.uk. We created it with the autism community in mind. We wanted to make sure that it was easy for people to find out who we are, what research we do and what events and activities take place at CRAE.
Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter In 2014, we continued to promote awareness of autism science and best practice in autism and education through our twiceyearly newsletters, CRAE News, which has a total readership in excess of 10,000. We also have a strong and growing Twitter following (1,600 followers of @CRAE_IOE in December 2014). We also launched a CRAE Facebook page in response to requests by parents of children with autism and because the CRAE team felt that this was an opportunity for more two-way dialogue between researchers and ‘the researched’. All CRAE members contribute 2-3 engaging posts per week, written in accessible language.
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Brain Detectives During school holidays in the past two years, we have held Brain Detectives science clubs at IOE, seeing more than 150 typically developing children aged between 6 and 14 years, for half-day workshops. Children come in to the IOE, to a dedicated research space, The Space, to become a Brain Detective, where they take part in our research and learn along the way about the brain and mind. They also help us researchers learn about how children see and think about the world around them. In 2014, we extended these workshops to children and young people with autism, and have seen more than 60 such children at these events. For more information about upcoming events please email: braindetectives@ioe.ac.uk
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Public Impact
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From Research Appendix A: Publications to Practice
Peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and commentaries Cowan, R., & Pellicano, E. (2014). Autism, special needs and mathematics learning. Encyclopedia of Mathematics Education (ed. Steve Lerman). SpringerReference.com Croydon, A., Pimperton, H., Ewing, L., Duchaine, B., & Pellicano, E. (2014). The Cambridge Face Memory Test for Children (CFMT-C): A new tool for measuring face recognition skills in childhood. Neuropsychologia, 62, 60 – 67. Filippi, R., Karaminis T. N., & Thomas, M. S. C. (2014). Language switching in bilingual production: empirical data and a computational model. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2, 294 – 315.
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Pellicano, E., Dinsmore, A., & Charman, T. (2014). Views on researcher-community engagement in autism research in the United Kingdom: A mixed-methods study. PLOS One. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0109946. Remington, A., Cartwright-Finch, U., & Lavie, N. (2014). I can see clearly now: The effects of age and perceptual load on inattentional blindness. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, 229. Swettenham, J., Remington, A., Murphy, P., Feuerstein, M., Grim, K., & Lavie, N. (2014). Seeing the unseen: Autism involves reduced susceptibility to inattentional blindness. Neuropsychologia, 28, 563-70.
Blogs and specialist publications
Manning, C., Dakin, S., Tibber, M., & Pellicano, E. (2014). Averaging, not internal noise, limits the development of coherent motion processing. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 10, 44-56.
Pellicano, E. & Hill, V. (2014). Life at School: understanding the experiences of young people who attend residential special schools. Challenging Behaviour Foundation newsletter, October 2014.
Milton, D., Mills, R., & Pellicano, E. (2014). Ethics and autism: where is the autistic voice? Commentary on Post et al. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 44, 2650-2651.
Pellicano, E. (2014). A future made together: new directions in the ethics of autism research. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 14, 200 – 204.
Pellicano, E., Dinsmore, A., & Charman, T. (2014). What should autism research focus upon? Community views and priorities from the UK. Autism, 18, 756-770.
Pellicano, E. (2014). Autism grows up. June 5th, 2014. For Talk about Autism Blog: http://blog.talkaboutautism.org. uk/2014/06/autism-grows-up.html#taa
Pellicano, E., Hill, V., Croydon, A., Greathead, S., Kenny, L., & Yates, R. with Wac Arts. (2014). My life at school: Understanding the experiences of children and young people with special educational needs in residential special schools. London, UK: Office of the Children’s Commissioner.
Pellicano, E. (2014). Autism research isn’t helping people live with daily reality. April 23rd 2014. For The Conversation: https:// theconversation.com/autism-research-isnthelping-people-live-with-daily-reality-25773
Pellicano, E. (2014). How researchers and the autism community together can bring about real change. April 23rd 2014. For IOE London Blog: http://ioelondonblog. wordpress.com/2014/04/23/howresearchers-and-the-autism-communitytogether-can-bring-about-real-change/ Pellicano, E. (2014). A Future Made Together: New directions in the ethics of autism research. Special Magazine. Pellicano, E. (2014). A Future Made Together: New directions in the ethics of autism research. SEN Forum. Remington, A. & Frith, U. (2014). Intense world theory raises intense worries. January 21st 2014. For Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI) Blog. http://sfari. org/news-and-opinion/viewpoint/2014/ intense-world-theory-raises-intense-worries
Appendix B: 2014 Presentations
Cage, E., Bird, G., & Pellicano, E. Understanding the cognitive factors underlying reputation management in children with and without autism. Poster presented at the 13th International Meeting For Autism Research (IMFAR), Atlanta, Georgia, May 2014.
Manning, C., Tibber, M.S., Dakin, S.C. & Pellicano, E. What limits global motion processing in development? An equivalent noise approach. Paper presented at the Experimental Psychology Society (EPS) Meeting, London, UK, January 2014.
Manning, C., Dakin, S.C., Tibber, M.S. & Pellicano, E. (2014). Increased integration of motion information in children with autism. Paper presented at 37th European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP), Belgrade, Serbia, August 2014.
Cage, E., Bird, G., & Pellicano, E. The development of reputation management and its underlying mechanisms. Poster presented at the 2014 British Psychological Society’s Developmental Section conference, Amsterdam, September 2014.
Manning, C. Motion processing in children with autism. External colloquium at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK, January 2014.
Manning, C., Neil, L., Karaminis, T., & Pellicano E. (2014). The effects of motion grouping on speed discrimination thresholds in typically developing children and children with autism. Paper presented at 19th Christmas meeting of the Applied Vision Association (AVA), London, UK, December 2014.
Gaudion, K., & Pellicano, E. Experiencing everyday activities: Home environments for adults with autism. Poster presented at the 13th International Meeting For Autism Research (IMFAR), Atlanta, Georgia, May 2014. Karaminis, T., Neil, L., Manning, C., Turi, M., Fiorentini, C., Burr, D., & Pellicano, E. Ensemble perception of emotions in children with autism is similar to typically developing children. Poster presented at the 2014 Applied Vision Association (AVA) Christmas Meeting, London, December 2014. Karaminis, T. N., Neil, L., Cappagli, G., AagtenMurphy, D., Cicchini, G. M., Burr, D. & Pellicano, E. Central tendency effects in temporal interval reproduction in autism. Poster presented at the 13th International Meeting For Autism Research (IMFAR), Atlanta, Georgia, May 2014. Kenny, L., Smith, A., Rudnicka, A., & Pellicano, E. Drawing corners: Using a drawing reproduction task to test theories of local-global processing in children with autism. Poster presented at the 13th International Meeting For Autism Research (IMFAR), Atlanta, Georgia, May 2014.
Manning, C. Motion processing in children with autism. Seminar at the Group for Research in Developmental Disorders, UCL Institute of Education, University College London, UK, March 2014. Manning, C., Dakin, S.C., Tibber, M.S., Charman, T. & Pellicano, E. (2014). Local and global contributions to direction integration performance in children with autism spectrum disorder. Paper presented at the 13th International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR), Atlanta, May 2014. Manning, C., Dakin, S.C., Tibber, M.S., Charman, T. & Pellicano, E. (2014). Increased sampling of motion signals in children with autism. Poster presented at Vision Sciences Society (VSS) meeting, Florida, May 2014. Manning, C. Motion processing abilities in children with autism. Invited talk at the Oxford Autism Research Group, University of Oxford, UK, June 2014. Manning, C. Motion processing abilities in children with autism. Invited talk at the Wales Autism Research Centre, Cardiff University, UK, July 2014.
Neil, L., Cappagli, G., Karaminis, T., Jenkins, R., & Pellicano, E. Recognising the same face in different contexts: Testing within-person face recognition in autism. Poster presented at the 13th International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR), Atlanta, Georgia, May 2014. Pellicano, E. A future made together: New directions in the ethics of autism research. Public lecture for the Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Western Australia, October 2014. Pellicano, E. Early cognitive biomarkers predicting longitudinal course in ASD. Invited talk at the International Scientific Symposium on “Biomarkers and biologically guided therapeutic options of child psychiatric disorders” in honour of Professor Jan Buitelaar, funded by Merz and hosted by Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany, September 2014. Pellicano, E. Autism in England: Building on the existing strategy. Invited talk at the Westminster Health Forum Keynote Seminar: Improving autism care and delivering the revised national strategy. London, July 2014.
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From Research Appendix B: 2014toPresentations Practice cont... Pellicano, E. When the world becomes too real: a new account of autistic perception. Invited talk at the 4th IMPRS NeuroCom Summer School, University College London, July 2014. Pellicano, E. Defining outcomes for autistic people: what are “we” striving for? Invited keynote at the Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) Autism Special Interest Group (SIG) Conference, London, July 2014. Pellicano, E. New directions in the ethics of autism research. Invited seminar at the Postgraduate Certificate in Autism conference, University of Roehampton, Roehampton, June 2014. Pellicano, E. What do people want from autism research? Talk to Merton Mencap’s Talk Autism!, a forum for parents of children, young people and adults with autism. Merton, Surrey, June 2014. Pellicano, E. New directions in the ethics of autism research. Invited seminar at the A. J. Drexel Autism Institute, Drexel University, Philadelphia, May 2014. Pellicano, E. New directions in the ethics of autism research. Invited talk at the 1-day event, A Future Made Together: Shaping Autism Research in Wales, organised by Research Autism, and hosted by the Wales Autism Research Centre, Cardiff, UK, April 2014. Pellicano, E. New directions in the ethics of autism research. Invited talk at the Autism Diagnosis: Making Voices Heard conference, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, April 2014. Pellicano, E. New directions in the ethics of autism research. Talk presented at the Theorising Autism workshop, organised by autistic scholars and hosted by CRAE, Institute of Education, London, March 2014.
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Pellicano, E. When the world becomes too real: a new explanation of autistic perception. Invited seminar at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands, March 2014.
Remington, A. The Autism Gift? Increased perceptual capacity in autism spectrum disorder. Keynote talk presented at the Neurodevelopmental Disorders Seminar Series, Durham University, UK, June 2014
Pellicano, E. Defining outcomes for autistic people: what are “we” striving for? Invited talk to the Senior Leadership Team at Oak Lodge School, London, January 2014.
Remington, A., & Lavie, N. Increased capacity for time perception under load in autism spectrum disorder. Poster presented at 21st Annual Meeting, Cognitive Neuroscience Society, Boston, USA, April 2014.
Pellicano, E. New directions in the ethics of autism research. Invited talk at the Autism Education Trust’s External Reference Group, London, January 2014. Remington, A. Attention, perception and sensory sensitivities in autism spectrum condition. Invited talk presented at the Centre for Psychiatry & Neuroscience weekly seminar series, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France, December 2014. Remington, A. The Autism Gift? Increased perceptual capacity in autism spectrum disorder. Invited talk presented at the INC Day 2014: Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Institut Neurosciences Cognition, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France, December 2014. Remington, A. Cognitive theories of autism and their implications for teaching and learning. Invited talk presented at the Birmingham Communication Autism Team Development Day, Birmingham, UK, November 2014. Remington, A. The Autism Gift? Increased perceptual capacity in autism spectrum disorder. Keynote talk presented at the Danish National Autism Research Network Meeting, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark, October 2014.
Remington, A. Increased perceptual capacity in autism spectrum disorder. Invited talk presented at the 1st CanadaIsrael Autism Research Symposium, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, March 2014.
Acknowledgements We are indebted to our funders and supporters, including alumni and friends of the Institute, plus all of the fabulous children, young people, adults, families, practitioners, headteachers, and school staff who so generously have given up their time to help with our research throughout the past year. We are immensely grateful for their continued commitment and support. 21 xii
Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE) Department of Psychology and Human Development UCL Institute of Education 55-59 Gordon Square London WC1H 0NU Š2015 UCL Institute of Education