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How can we improve quality of life and study success in young, high-functioning adults with autism?

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Brain development in children with an extra X chromosome as compared to children with autism: evidence from MRI

Children with autism spectrum disorder experience serious challenges in social functioning, which threatens their development in many areas of functioning.

Why do children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have difficulties with acquiring emotion regulation skills; and how is this related to their social impairments and comorbid psychopathology?

Being able to share your emotions is important for social development and for making friends; the same principle also applies in Sesame Street. The makers of the American Sesame Street programme have introduced a new character, Julia, in the hope of helping children and parents understand autism sufferers…

Autism spectrum disorders are more often diagnosed in boys than in girls. For Developmental Psychology professor Carolien Rieffe this raises the question whether autism remains undiscovered in girls and women.

There are effective treatments for people with autism, says Wouter Staal, professor of Autism Spectrum Disorders, in his inaugural lecture on 4 May. However, it is not yet clear which treatment is most effective for which individual.

Girls with autism have relatively good social skills, which means that their autism is often not recognised. Autism manifests itself in girls differently from in boys. Psychologist Carolien Rieffe and colleagues from the Autism Centre and INTER-PSY (Groningen) report their findings in the Dutch Scientific…

Boys with autism are more prone to develop physical complaints, depression and aggressive behaviour. Psychologists at Leiden University have discovered that this is mainly related to rumination. Publication in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

The Leiden University psychologist Carolien Rieffe will investigate how to create an social climate at high schools, to make young people with autism feel more comfortable and able to engage with their social surroundings and thus develop essential social and emotional skills. Rieffe and collaborators…

Psychologists of Leiden University and Peking University will collaborate to investigate the deficiencies in emotion recognition in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The new collaboration fits very well in the policy of Leiden University in which intensified collaboration with China has…

Boys who are bullied develop more fear and shame; boys who bully develop more anger and less guilt, which makes it easier to justify more bullying. Boys with autism respond more angrily to bullying than others, and thus make for an easier target. Developmental psychologist Carolien Rieffe and her colleagues…

'A great result for the effect of Pokémon Go on children with autism', says Carolien Rieffe in the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant. 'Although we do not know whether the game will lead to friendships in the long term.'

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Which educational and child welfare interventions offer optimal opportunities for positive development to children with severe behavioral and emotional disorders.

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A common notion is that autistic people feel no need for social contact, that they are socially clumsy and show little prosocial behavior. But is that image correct? According to developmental psychologist Carolien Rieffe, an important goal of Autism Awareness Week (March 28 - April 5) is to remove…

Inaugural Lecture

We examine the effect of social learning on emotional competence in children and adolescents with a typical or atypical development.

The group is involved in training in areas of diagnostic skills, treatment/prevention/intervention, neuropsychological assessment, behavioral observations, clinical interviewing, psychoeducation for parents and teachers, knowledge of intellectual disability, autism, ADHD, psychosis, aggression, as well…

PhD Defence

PhD Defence

Development and validation of instruments that can measure different aspects of emotional competence in children with normal and atypical development, and in different cultures

Research in the group Clinical Neurodevelopmental Studies is focused on understanding and influencing developmental mechanisms in children and adolescents, in particular the development of psychopathology, ranging from mild to severe neurodevelopmental disorders.

Although there has been an increase in the research into brain function and dysfunction in relation to the impact of social factors, there are still many unanswered questions.

Read about the impact of past research