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HKU Baby Scientist Program
Parent talk to reveal “What goes wrong early in Autism Spectrum Disorders?”

12 Jun 2015

The University of Hong Kong (HKU) Baby Scientist Program will hold June Parent Talk on Autism spectrum disorders atypical behaviors during infancy.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are developmental disorders characterized by differences in a variety of social, communicative, and emotional behaviors, which occur in 1% of the population. The speaker, Professor Karen Dobkins from University of California, San Diego, is a world-renown developmental psychologist. Her research tracked  development in the “High-Risk” infants from ages 3 months to 5 years to look for atypicalities that may be early signs of risk for ASD.

“High-Risk” infants are the infant siblings of children with ASD because these infants have a significantly increased risk (i.e., 10- to 20-fold) for developing ASD than other infants.  Although ASD cannot be accurately diagnosed in infants smaller than two or three years old, Professor Karen Dobkins will present the atypical behaviors of High-ASD-Risk infants from a variety of aspects: visual, cognitive, language, social abilities and even gastrointestinal dysfunctions, which can be seen in the course of maturity. The results will provide insight into the etiology of ASD, as well as lead to innovative treatments.

Details of the parent talk:
Date:             June 21, 2015 (Sunday)

Time:            10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Location:      HKU Centennial Campus Central Podium LG -61
Speaker:      Professor Karen Dobkins, Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego
Medium:      English
Free admission

Registration required at https://goo.gl/jh0P66
Registration deadline: June 16, 2015 (Tuesday)

Space is limited and the priority will be given to the caregivers with baby younger than one year old.
We will send a confirmation email for successful registrants.

About The Baby Scientist Program
The Baby Scientist Program was started in 2010 by the Department of Psychology at the University of Hong Kong.  Baby Scientists aged between 1 to 12 month-old have been recruited to help researchers understand how human perceptual and cognitive abilities develop and mature. To date, there are more than 800 baby scientist alumni members, including children and parents.

For more information about the program, please visit: http://www.psychology.hku.hk/pall/bbintroduction.html, or
https://www.facebook.com/HKUbb

Enquiries:
Email: hku.pal@gmail.com
Tel: Dr. Lamei Wang at 52256630.