Research team
Dr Alexandra Sturrock, MRCSLT
Principal Investigator
Alexandra has an internationally established academic profile on subjects of autistic children’s and adults’ language and communication needs (using quantitative and qualitative methods).
She has an interest in assessing and supporting social communication for under-resourced groups (such as women and girls), and developing appropriate supports that fit in with community preferences.
She brings clinical experience of working with autistic children in S< services and a passion for co-production and community dissemination.
Alison Hunter, MRCSLT
Joint Principal Investigator
Alison is a highly specialist speech and language therapist with 33 years’ experience in the profession.
She is currently a clinical lead in both paediatric community and mental health services in the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) and has 20 years’ accrued knowledge, working with autistic children and their families.
She is also central to regional initiatives in clinical service development for autistic children. She is working on the Social Communication (assessment/diagnosis) Pathway, joint lead on the Early-Years’ Autism Pathway steering group, and contributing to the Neurodevelopmental Pathway task finish group.
Dr Kathy Leadbitter
Co-investigator
Kathy has over 18 years’ experience conducting research into services for autistic children, and has been co-applicant on six NIHR grants, including large-scale impactful projects leading to change in clinical guidelines and practice.
She brings expertise in working with the public, participatory research, evaluation of care packages and neurodiversity-affirming practice. She has several autistic family members and brings lived experience of navigating services.
Dr Katherine Twomey
Co-investigator
Katherine will bring knowledge and skills to this project from the context of her experience as an autistic person and 12 years of leading quantitative research into child language development (ESRC International Centre for Language Development).
She will apply this expertise to ensure scientific rigour in research design, data collection and analysis, but critically, assuring that autistic interpretation is integral in data analysis.
Carla Rohde, MRCSLT
Carla is a speech and language therapist, autistic advocate and the public co-applicant on this grant. She currently works as a Clinical Lecturer and BMedSci programme director at the University of Sheffield.
Carla has a clinical and professional interest in accessible communication for all, which she is pursuing through her PhD, evaluating a novel programme for teaching medical students about communication differences in clinical groups.
She has also contributed to a national e-learning resource on this subject, Communication Access UK.
Research Assistant (RA)
Our RA will be trained in interviewing children and S<s (Phases 1-2) and using visually augmented materials to interview children with complex language needs (Phase 3).
They will contribute to all aspects of collecting, managing, and analysing our data and meeting project deadlines under the primary supervision of Alexandra and Alison. They will also help set up and run the PPIE advisory groups with Carla.
Young Autistic Adult (YAA) researcher
The YAA will be a member of the PPIE panel, but will also develop new researcher skills and contribute to analysis and interpretation of interview data, supported by Katherine, Kathy and Alexandra.
Public Patient Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) panel
The PPIE panel will oversee development of all materials and procedures, reflect and advise on recruitment and representative sampling, contribute to interpretation of results, and identify routes for public dissemination. This will be facilitated and co-ordinated by Carla.
Steering group
This group will run adjacent to the grant and offer impartial advice and support to ensure the team can best achieve the intended targets.
Contact Us
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