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The Human Development and Community Wellbeing (HDCW) Team focuses on improving outcomes for children, family, and the community.
Research
Caregiver sensitivity predicts infant language use, and infant language complexity predicts caregiver language complexity, in the context of possible emerging autismWhile theory supports bidirectional effects between caregiver sensitivity and language use, and infant language acquisition-both caregiver-to-infant and also infant-to-caregiver effects-empirical research has chiefly explored the former unidirectional path. In the context of infants showing early signs of autism, we investigated prospective bidirectional associations with 6-min free-play interaction samples collected for 103 caregivers and their infants (mean age 12-months; and followed up 6-months later).
Research
Robustness, risk and responsivity in early language acquisitionLanguage is a robust developmental phenomenon, characterised by rapid and prodigious growth.
Research
Parent–child book reading across early childhood and child vocabulary in the early school yearsThe current study investigated the extent to which low levels of joint attention in infancy and parent-child book reading across early childhood increase the...
Research
Does cerebral lateralization develop? A study using functional transcranial Doppler ultrasound assessingIn the majority of people, language production is lateralized to the left cerebral hemisphere and visuospatial skills to the right.

News & Events
ORIGINS reaches key milestoneORIGINS, a collaboration between The Kids and the Joondalup Health Campus, has achieved a major milestone – recruiting its 1000th family.
News & Events
Most late-talking toddlers turn out okThe study is the first of its kind to track language delay from two years of age through to late adolescence, using data collected from the long running Raine
News & Events
Late talking toddlers: new research debunks the mythsNew research findings from the world's largest study predicting children's late language emergence has revealed that parents are not to blame for late talking

News & Events
How learning to talk is in the genesResearchers from Perth's The Kids Research Institute Australia have been part of an international study that has found that genetic factors contribute to the development of l