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Winthrop Professor Andrew Whitehouse
Professor Andrew Whitehouse directs the Autism Research
Team at the Telethon Kids Institute (The University of
Western Australia), and is one of the youngest ever
Professors at the University of Western Australia. His
research team use a range of methodologies to investigate
the early identification and intervention of children
with ASD, including molecular genetics, neuroscience,
endocrinology and behavioural experiments.
Andrew has published over 100 peer-reviewed journals
and attracted over $35 million in competitive research
grants. He currently writes a popular column on child
development for The West Australian and the news website
The Conversation, which have attracted over 1 million hits
since 2012.
He is currently Associate Editor of the Journal of Speech,
Language and Hearing Research, and on the Editorial Board
of the Journal of Autusm and Development Disorders .
Andrew has published one edited book with his twin-
brother (Ben), and a popular science book that examined
the science behind some of the myths of pregnancy and
child development (Will Mozart Make My Baby Smart?).
Prior to coming to the Telethon Kids Institute, Andrew was
a Fellow at the University of Oxford.
TEU: Elizabeth Usher Memorial Lecture:
Can we prevent disability in autism through infant interventions?
Re-writing the rulebook
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is typically diagnosed between three and five years of age,
which is when behavioural symptoms are able to be clearly identified without ambiguity.
A major problem with this relatively ‘late’ age of diagnosis is that by the time a child has
been identified as having ASD, many of the best opportunities to provide lasting change to
the developing brain has already passed by. But what if we threw out the rulebook of rigid
diagnoses, and created a new paradigm in which we identified infants as young as 12 months
of age as being ‘at risk’ of ASD, and provided preventative therapy? Could this new paradigm
prevent infants ‘at risk’ of ASD ever developing the disability usually associated with the
condition?
In this Elizabeth Usher Memorial Award Lecture, Andrew will present the world-wide research
that is contributing to this new rule book, and discuss whether there is sufficient evidence for
its adoption by the speech pathology profession. He will also outline the trials of ‘very early
interventions’ (i.e., in the first year of life) conducted within his own research clinic. The aim
of this lecture is to challenge the audience to rethink the current paradigm and to start an
Australia-wide conversation about how we can tackle this problem as a united profession.
Featured Presenters
Tuesday 17 May 9.00am - 10.30am
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