Developmental Science - Durham Psychology

Super happy end to the conference as my and @zannaclay.bsky.social 's student Georgia Tuohy wins best talk! And @amandinevisine.bsky.social who works with @sheinalew.bsky.social wins best poster (pic to follow).

@durhamdevsci.bsky.social on a roll! 😆

@durhampsych.bsky.social
#ehbea #ehbea2025

The journey continues....with new research from our group ongoing - and with new developments for Triple-A, such as a focus on PE specifically, and with a whole-school in-person version of the training! Watch this space……

Once again, thank you to all the wonderful children, young people, parents and teachers who took part in the underpinning research, and to our amazing team of autistic people, parents, teachers and academics who co-designed the training tool. @21andsensory.bsky.social

It’s been such an interesting and worthwhile journey so far - with over 8000 users and considerable evidence of positive impact on understanding and practice. Here we share our new pre-print on the development of Triple-A, including analysis of its use and impact so far: doi.org/10.31234/osf...

It has been just over 3 years since we (@debbieriby.bsky.social & I) launched Triple-A (www.tripledurham.co.uk) - a training tool for educators for supporting autistic and neurodivergent pupils with attention, sensory arousal and anxiety.

Pleased to contribute to this

Body size aftereffects are adult-like from 7 years onward There is considerable evidence that adults’ perception of body weight in others can be manipulated via visual exposure to multiple bodies at one or an…

New paper!

V excited to have published my first #cognitive #DevelopmentalPsychology project. 😁

We demonstrated body weight after effects in 7-10yos, 11-12yos, 14-15yos, and adults. Data suggest that just like with faces, visual representations of bodies mature relatively young.

Schematic of the experimental procedure. Participants viewed a range of bodies, followed by a set of very high or low weight bodies, and then rated the original bodies for weight again.

Both children and adults show a clear drop in the heaviness ratings they give stimuli after viewing a series of high weight bodies

The 7-10yo data were collected at @durhamdevsci.bsky.social 's Junior Scientist community event. You'd think a big noisy hall, competing with cool VR studies, would be tough for good data collection but I've never seen an effect quite this clean!

#PsychSciSky

Are you being watched? Soderbergh’s ghost voyeur movie taps strange truths Presence, the story of a family haunting where the camera’s eye is the spectre’s point of view, draws on what are for many people all too palpable phenomena

Presence on Presence: I watched Soderbergh's new film and wrote a bit for @theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ja...

Great to see work from our team lead by the fantastic @fassiluisa.bsky.social being written up for a general audience by The Mental Elf! Worth a read if you are interested in the evidence base on social media and clinical anxiety/depression in young people ⬇️

So, I got another piece of good news yesterday too... 😊

How to support neurodivergent postgraduate researchers How can universities ensure PhD students of all neurotypes can thrive? Here’s how to provide neurodiversity-affirmative supervision

New article from Debbie Riby, @dramypearson.bsky.social and Jess Hirst from @durhampsych.bsky.social &
@durhamdevsci.bsky.social on how #universitiescan support #neurodivergentresearchers Read it here:
bit.ly/3CdlDcj #academia #highered #neurodiversity

Email headers showing a paper decision from Journal of Experimental Child Psychology and then an invitation to track my article's progress in the type setting and publishing process.

Exciting times! After years of doing research with children and publishing it in topic-specialist outlets, I have finally got my first paper led by me unto a developmental journal!

Big thanks to @durhamdevsci.bsky.social !

Psychologists represent in the staff procession. (Ulrik, Liz, Amanda Debbie, me!)

Newly minted Dr Fabienne Andres!

Lucy and Oscar take a day off from their PhDs to graduate with their MRes

Charlie taking a day off from the PhD for the MA graduation.

Some big smiles despite the cold as current and previous lab members and Psycholgy Spanish conversation clubbers graduate with their PhDs/MRes.

@durhampsych.bsky.social
@durhamdevsci.bsky.social
@ninedtp.bsky.social

A lovely roundup of all the wonderful things going on in the @durhamdevsci.bsky.social group at Durham :) Here's to an awesome 2025! 🥳

It's the most incredible time of the year: our inaugural roundup of Durham Dev Sci exciting stuff from 2024.

No.1 is @mimhanley.bsky.social winning her BPS Impact & Engagement Award!

Mary won for her work on autism & Williams Syndrome, inc. Triple A which supports neurodiversity in schools 1/n

What amazing colleagues I have in @durhampsych.bsky.social and in the @durhamdevsci.bsky.social group in particular. It's been one hell of a year.

#DevelopmentalPsychology
#Interdisciplinarity
#ParticipatoryAction
#ActuallyAutistic research

Check out our critical neurodiversity studies conference call for abstracts and save the date! ndhumanities.com/2024/12/17/c...

a man in a green elf costume is screaming in a room . ALT: a man in a green elf costume is screaming in a room .

That's us for this year... Now to other important things! 9/9

And last but not least, congratulations to @drboothroyd.bsky.social & @dr-liz-evans.bsky.social for their huge ERC Advanced Grant on body image in Latin America and Africa 8/9

www.durham.ac.uk/news-events/...

YouTube video by Bjartur Sumarhus Daniel Tammet at the 2024 Edinburgh International Book Festival

In August @aldersonday.bsky.social got to interview Daniel Tammet at the Edinburgh International Book Festival about his stunning book, Nine Minds: Lives on the Spectrum 7/n

youtu.be/HcJSOxeGzk4?...

Shaping the developing homunculus: the roles of deprivation and compensatory behaviour in sensory remapping Some of the most dramatic examples of neuroplasticity in the human brain follow congenital sensory deprivation, though we have limited understanding of the plasticity mechanisms driving such large-sca...

No.6 is @dorothycowie.bsky.social who published this long-awaited neuroimaging preprint on motor remapping in children with limb differences 6/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

And we were very excited to be joined by @drmbothapsych.bsky.social whose works spans so many facets of theory and practice when it comes to neurodiversity 5/n

www.durham.ac.uk/staff/moniqu...

“It Has Shown Me How Much I Am Capable Of”: An Exploration of Autistic Burnout Experiences in Motherhood | Autism in Adulthood Background: Research has highlighted a relationship between autistic motherhood and autistic burnout, although autistic mothers’ experiences of autistic burnout have not been explored in depth. Method...

We could have picked multiple crucial papers from @dramypearson.bsky.social this year, covering topics that are often neglected when it comes to autistic wellbeing. This one is no exception: the challenges of burnout for autistic mothers 4/m
www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/...

We are hugely proud of @sheinalew.bsky.social for her award of a Philip Leverhulme prize for her work on cross-cultural diversity in learning 3/n

www.leverhulme.ac.uk/news/2024PLP

Linking Disparate Strands: A Critical Review of the Relationship Between Creativity and Education - Educational Psychology Review Whether schools help or hinder creativity is a topic of vibrant, international debate. Some contend that the focus on structure, rote learning and standardised assessments associated with formal educa...

Number 2 is @brucerawlings.bsky.social who published this critical review on creativity and education in November with Sarah Cutting 2/n

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

It's the most incredible time of the year: our inaugural roundup of Durham Dev Sci exciting stuff from 2024.

No.1 is @mimhanley.bsky.social winning her BPS Impact & Engagement Award!

Mary won for her work on autism & Williams Syndrome, inc. Triple A which supports neurodiversity in schools 1/n