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Catherine Lawton

@cat-lawton.bsky.social

170 followers 450 following 7 posts

ESRC-funded PhD researcher at King’s College London. Passionate about impacting the well-being of autistic children and young people with high functional and communication support needs in schools and the community. She/her.

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Catherine Lawton @cat-lawton.bsky.social · Jun 26

Want to reduce the incidence of mental health problems in neurodivergent young people? Focus on sleep. Sleep problems are the leading mediating factor (12-43% variance, by age) of mental health outcomes - Chiara Caserini at #NDAS2025. Preprint in repost. #AutRes

Dr Giorgia Michelini @giorgiamichelini.bsky.social · May 2

*New preprint* on ND and co-occurring mental health problems from my lab, led by Chiara Caserini! Using longitudinal data from ABCD we asked: What drives poor mental health outcomes in children with high ND traits? Here's brief summary 🧠🌳🏡 www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1.... 1/n

Developmental pathways from childhood neurodevelopmental traits to early adolescent psychiatric dimensions: the role of environmental and lifestyle factors

Objectives: Transdiagnostic dimensional approaches have advanced our understanding of psychiatric comorbidity and developmental continuity, but have rarely been applied to investigate links between ne...

www.medrxiv.org

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Reposted by Catherine Lawton

Laura Crane @lauramaycrane.bsky.social · Jun 26

Calling autism community members and justice professionals (with experience in Magistrates/Crown Court) to help co-design new, accessible resources for autistic people involved in criminal court systems in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 & 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Autism community: lnkd.in/ekxQ_wV5
Justice professionals: lnkd.in/ee8SXbmd

#AutRes

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Catherine Lawton @cat-lawton.bsky.social · Jun 26

@giorgiamichelini.bsky.social argues for integrating “neurodevelopmental spectrum” into the transdiagnostic model, which currently does not capture conditions such as autism and ADHD. Related paper: scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=e...

scholar.google.com

Catherine Lawton @cat-lawton.bsky.social · Jun 26

Evidence suggests depression has a greater negative effect than anxiety on the quality of life of (speaking) autistic adults: Dr Melanie Ring of Dresden University at #NDAS2025. Study here:
scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=e...

scholar.google.com

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Catherine Lawton @cat-lawton.bsky.social · Jun 26

Brilliant use of videos to give voice to non-speaking children’s experiences, presented by Prof Nicola Yuill of
@acornsussex.bsky.social at #NDAS2025.

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Reposted by Catherine Lawton

Dr Hannah Hobson @hannahhobson.bsky.social · Jun 24

Great to see the link between language and mental health considered on the BBC - and amazing of Siouxsie to share her experiences www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

We have video guides for mental health practitioners about language problems and mental health - see below!

Children with speech issues risk poor mental health, charity says

Speech and Language UK says some children can struggle to categorise and communicate how they feel.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Catherine Lawton

Lisa Messeri @lmesseri.bsky.social · Jun 25

Exactly. And using AI for knowledge production will lead to scientific monocultures, as @mjcrockett.bsky.social and I argued (more than a year ago) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Catherine Lawton @cat-lawton.bsky.social · Jun 25

Today at #NDAS2025: the editor’s view through the review process with @profnikkibotting.bsky.social … do’s and don’ts for submission cover letters, contacting editors, reviewing and becoming a reviewer

Catherine Lawton @cat-lawton.bsky.social · Jun 25

Today at #NDAS2025: using #AI for systematic literature review quality assessments with Dr Nick Behn, and checking methodology and designing animated online tasks for kids with Professor @steer-rhinos.bsky.social

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Reposted by Catherine Lawton

Nature @nature.com · Mar 27

Many firms are misusing the ‘open source’ label. The scientific community, which relies on transparency and replicability, must resist this trend, says Stefano Maffulli

https://go.nature.com/4l5D7ch

‘Open source’ AI isn’t truly open — here’s how researchers can reclaim the term

Many firms are misusing the ‘open source’ label. The scientific community, which relies on transparency and replicability, must resist this trend.

go.nature.com

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Catherine Lawton @cat-lawton.bsky.social · Feb 14

Noted. My Samonsite’s wheels died in less than a year with zilch support from the company.