On play-based inventions and mental health in autism and developmental language disorder, with Gill Francis

03/21/22 • 20 min

Dr Gill Althia Francis is a Research Fellow in Cognitive Psychology and Children's Play at the University of York, who specialises in researching how play impacts development for both neurodiverse and neurotypical children. She is a holder of a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship Award. During this podcast Gill chats to Louisa about a piece of work looking at the impact of play-based interventions on the mental health of autistic children and children with developmental language disorder.
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You can find Gill on Twitter @gillalthia, and you can find out more about her work by visiting her staff page at York.
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Gill has also been featured in a children's book as a 'Play Researcher', and you can find the book here.
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The paper discussed in this podcast is:
Francis, G., Deniz, E., Torgerson, C., & Toseeb, U. (2022). Play-based interventions for mental health: A systematic review and meta-analysis focused on children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder and developmental language disorder. Autism & Developmental Language Impairments.

Previous Episode

On visual motion processing in dyslexia, with Cathy Manning

Dr Cathy Manning is a lecturer at University of Reading who researches sensory processing and decision-making in typically developing, autistic and dyslexic children. During this podcast she chats to Louisa about a new study looking at how children with dyslexia perceive and make decisions about visual information.
You can find Cathy on Twitter @CManningPhD, and you can find out more about the work we discuss in this episode in this summary article in The Conversation.
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The paper discussed in this podcast is:
Manning, C., Hassall, C. D., Hunt, L. T., Norcia, A. M., Wagenmakers, E-J., Snowling, M. J., Scerif, G., & Evans, N. J. (2022). Visual motion and decision-making in dyslexia: Reduced accumulation of sensory evidence and related neural dynamics. Journal of Neuroscience, 42 (1) 121-134.

Next Episode

On helping employers to make tailored adjustments for their autistic employees, with Beatriz López

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.
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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.
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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.