Dr Sue Fletcher-Watson

Senior Lecturer

Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences (Division of Psychiatry)
Patrick Wild Centre for Research into Autism, Fragile X Syndrome & Intellectual Disabilities

Email: sue.fletcher-watson@ed.ac.uk
Twitter @suereviews

Biography

Background

I first became interested in developmental disabilities, and autism in particular, through my work with the Oundle School Mencap Holiday, an organisation I’ve been volunteering with since 1997 and of which I became a trustee from 2006-2016. Inspired by OSMH, I am continuing this work by launching a similar charity in Scotland to provide residential holidays for children and young people with learning disabilities.

As an undergraduate I studied Psychology at the University of St Andrews, and then went on to a Masters and PhD at Durham University, where I was fortunate to be supervised by the wonderful Professor Sue Leekam. My PhD research explored the spontaneous social attention preferences of typically-developed adults and adolescents, and those with ASD, using a range of methods, including verbal descriptions, change blindness and eye-tracking. Since then I have worked under the fabulous mentorship of Professor Helen McConachie including a Nuffield Fellowship which funded the Click-East project. I’m now a Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Edinburgh based in the Patrick Wild Centre.

I am a trustee of Scottish Autism and am working closely with this organisation’s efforts to inspire and contribute to evidence-based practice in Scotland. Public engagement is very important to me and I try to provide useful insights into research and exposes of the truth behind the headlines in the DART blog.

Qualifications

BSc (hons) Psychology, University of St Andrews (first class), 2003
MA, Developmental Psychopathology, Durham University (with distinction), 2004
PhD., 'Understanding social attention in adults with and without autism spectrum disorders', Durham University, 2008

Research

Research summary

I am interested in how children develop and learn, and in particular in cases where this follows an unusual trajectory.

First, I explore how we can characterise the early abilities and difficulties of babies who have either already experienced adversity (such as those born preterm) or who later go on to receive a specific diagnosis (such as autism).

Second, I ask how we can intervene to improve outcome for such babies and young children. My methods involve mostly direct observation and assessment including eye-tracking, and I also have an interest in technology, such as iPads, as an intervention route.

Research aims and areas of interest

Cognitive and behavioural approaches to understanding typical and atypical (social) development & consequent educational and therapeutic work
Applied research for autism in Psychology, Medicine, Informatics and Education
Autism social communication interventions, especially early years and/or technology-based, including rigorous outcome measurement for clinical trials
Infant cognition; eye-tracking as a measure of cognitive and social ability; studying long-term outcomes in infants born premature, and in other neonatal risk categories
Technology for learning; therapeutic and educational iPad app development; use of augmentative and alternative communication systems
Methodologies: randomised controlled trials; eye-movement recording; experimental group comparisons; focus groups; interviews; online surveys