Center News

ADHD, Big Emotions, and Adaptive Behavior in Young Autistic Children

A recent Duke study explored a link between ADHD, difficulties with big emotions, and adaptive behavior – a person’s ability to perform everyday social and personal life skills - in autistic children. We found that kids with more difficulty managing big emotions also had greater difficulties with social adaptive behavior specifically.

Autism Center Moves Research Efforts to Updated Facility

We are expanding our research capacity at our facility in the Exchange on Erwin building to accommodate all of our research efforts into one easily accessible location. The facility has been designed to accommodate participants with sensory sensitivities and is equipped to support our advanced research studies.

Employee Spotlight: Evan Watson

Evan Watson, the Autism Center’s communications specialist has been with us since 2023. Originally from Winston-Salem, NC, Evan completed his Bachelor’s degree from The University of North Carolina at Wilmington, double majoring in history, and philosophy and religion. He then went on to complete a master’s program in library science at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he later worked as the overnight librarian at the 24 hour undergraduate library.

Maslow named Distinguished Professor in Child Psychiatry

Congratulations to Duke Psychiatry chair Dr. Moira Rynn and professor Dr. Gary Maslow on being named distinguished professors—and to the 29 other newly distinguished professors at Duke. They were all honored in a recent ceremony and reception at the Washington Duke Inn. Maslow serves as the medical director of the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development

Distinguished professorships honor faculty who are well-established members of the Duke academic community and who have achieved distinction as creative scholars in their field or in their ability to transcend disciplines.

SenseToKnow app shows accurate results when performed at home, study shows

Our team tested the accuracy of the SenseToKnow app for autism screening when used by caregivers at home on their own mobile phone or tablet. The results showed that the mobile autism screening app can be done at home and still provide a high level of accuracy for identifying autism in toddlers, comparable to the results of earlier studies in our clinic and lab.

The possibilities for remote screening could lower barriers to autism screening, reduce disparities in early access to services and support, and improve children’s outcomes.

Duke Undergraduate receives Simons fellowship

Ashleigh Waterman, a Duke undergraduate student has been funded for her work on our RISE project by the Simons Foundation's Shenoy Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Neuroscience (SURFiN)!

Ashleigh presented her poster "Remote assessment of infant memory of social vs non-social stimuli" at a recent meeting of SURFiN fellows in New York.