Current projects

Social and applied studies

ICF CoreSets-platform for autism: UK-based acceptability and feasibility study 

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, known more commonly as ICF, is a classification of health and health-related factors. With Autistic adults, someone’s strengths and support needs can vary widely depending on a series of environmental factors and what support they have or don’t have in place. This study aims to develop a platform where those environmental factors can be assessed and broken down into different components in order to create an individualised strengths-based report to help people understand their Autistic profile. 

This project has received funding from the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) and QR-policy funds. An acceptability and feasibility study, funded by NIHR (RfPB) is currently underway in three UK autism diagnostic services for adults. This project is being conducted in collaboration with Professor Sven Bölte from the Karolinska Institute who is based in Sweden. 

Read more about Phase 1 of the study here and associated work in collaboration with Autistica. 

See the ISRCTN registration here.

Autistic advisor: Kelly Scargill 

Co-investigators: Dr Marianne Day; Susanna Crowson; Kristenn-Lenaig Leporcher; Dr Daniel Poole; Prof Ian Kellar 

Principal investigator: Prof Megan Freeth

Participatory Systems Mapping with Underserved Autistic Adults: Co-Designing Health and Social Care Solutions Through Creative Arts

Many autistic adults experience poor health outcomes and barriers to accessing care, especially those from under-represented groups such as minority ethnic communities, low-income households, and people with learning disabilities. This project aims to build partnerships with these groups in Sheffield by running creative workshops through community organisations, using visual art, writing, and drama to help participants share their experiences of health and social care. A steering group of Autistic adults will guide and co-design the workshops, which will explore which creative methods are most effective and produce visual maps to identify key issues. These will inform the development of research priorities that reflect the needs of disadvantaged Autistic adults. The project will foster lasting collaborations, generate new ways of engaging Autistic people in research, and ultimately help shape future health and social care policy and services. 

Lead researcher: Victoria Newell

Principal investigators: Prof Megan Freeth, Dr Daniel Poole & Kelly Scargill

Co-investigators: Prof Ian Kellar; Prof Mary Stewart; Dr Vyv Huddy; Dr Joe Langley; Rachael Hughson-Gill

Autistic advisor: Neill Anderson (Sheffield Voices @ Disability Sheffield)

Understanding and Tackling the Barriers to Employment Experienced by Autistic Adults

This project explores barriers to employment experienced by autistic people. We have surveyed a sample of employers to identify the factors which influence their intentions and willingness to employ autistic people. These findings have informed development of an employer intervention to address identified barriers. The survey and intervention are based on established models of behaviour (COM-B and the Theoretical Domains Framework).

The intervention has been piloted for feasibility and acceptability with a sample of employers. A steering group of autistic adults have provide guidance around the design and delivery of the study.

The study is funded by The Colt Foundation.

See the web based resources for employers here.

An open access publication on this work is here.

Lead researcher: Dr Marianne Day

Principal investigator: Prof Megan Freeth

Co-Investigators: Dr Chantelle Wood; Dr Elizabeth Corker; Nick Pearson (Sheffield Occupational Health Advisory Service)

Understanding and Measuring Psychological Distress in Autistic Students 

This project is being carried out by Georgia Smith as part of her PhD in Psychology, funded by the ESRC.

Project supervisors: Prof Megan Freeth, Dr Emma Broglia and Dr Lauren Powell

Autistic people's experiences of diagnostic disclosure 

This project is being carried out by Dr Sheena Au-Yeung as part of her doctoral training in Clinical Psychology.

This work is now published open access here.

Project supervisors: Prof Megan Freeth and Prof Andrew Thompson

Exploring the experiences of Autistic adults who have experienced psychiatric inpatient admissions

This project is being carried out by Declan Downey as part of his doctoral training in Clinical Psychology.

Project supervisor: Prof Megan Freeth

Exploring the Experiences of British Pakistani Autistic Adults 

This project is being carried out by Muhammed Ibrahim Ali as part of his doctoral training in Clinical Psychology.

Project supervisor: Prof Megan Freeth

Cognitive neuroscience and cognitive psychology

Developing an Experimental Measure of Monotropism

This project is being carried our by Beatrix Butnicu as part of their PhD in Psychology, funded by The University of Sheffield

Project supervisors: Dr Daniel Poole & Dr Alon Zivony

What you can't ignore: examining distraction in autism

This project investigates whether autistic people's experience of distraction is determined by the nature and context of the stimuli. 

The study combines subjective accounts from autistic people with experimental testing to provide a comprehensive insight into the nature of distraction. 

This integrated approach should provide rich detail and robust measurement. This project is funded by the ESRC.

Lead researcher: Dr Daniel Poole
Project mentor: Prof Elizabeth Milne

Speech, language and communication in children with genetic conditions

The information this project produces will help families, doctors/nurses and educators better understand the needs for communication interventions in children affected by genetic conditions. Funding from the Baily Thomas Charitable Fund.

Lead researcher: Dr Harriet Smith
Project supervisors: Dr Alisdair McNeill, Prof Megan Freeth, Prof Danielle Matthews, Dr Silke Fricke