Research partnerships with the University of New South Wales and Macquarie University ensure Royal Far West is both contributing to, and kept abreast of, the latest research on child developmental disorders.
The SURF Project is a collaborative research program between the University of New South Wales and Royal Far West aimed at improving the effectiveness of prevention, early intervention and treatment of child and adolescent developmental and mental health problems.
The program aims to identify the abilities of children with a variety of developmental and mental health difficulties to ‘read’ emotions in other people and evaluate an innovative treatment to assist in this area. It is well suited to the diverse clientele and services provided through Royal Far West and is designed to produce outcomes that can be directly translated into clinical practice in community settings.
This joint project with the University of New South Wales investigates the effects of Oxytocin on the ability to understand social cues and interact appropriately in social situations. Oxytocin is a hormone found naturally in the human body and research indicates that it is associated with social approach behaviours such as increased eye contact, emotion recognition and social memory. Through this project we hope to learn about how Oxytocin operates in children who have an Autism Spectrum Disorder.
This project is one of the first of its kind. It is open to boys aged 8-16 years who have a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder, and who are accessing services through Royal Far West.
Royal Far West is also involved in a joint study with Macquarie University - part of a five-year project funded by the Australian Research Council, entitled Cognitive and Neural Causes of Language Impairment in Autism. This study aims to help us better understand the speech-processing difficulties of children with specific language impairment and autism.
