Longitudinal European Autism Project - LEAP

05/12/2024

Dear LEAP families,

May your Christmas be bright and cheerful. Thank you for all your support over the years. Happy holidays! 🥳

Love from the LEAP team

22/07/2024

Happy Monday everyone!

Please see advert below about an "Online Survey on Age-Related Differences in Physical Activity Levels, Physical Activity Preferences, Mental Health, and Quality of Life among Autistic Adults" and share it with your network if anyone is interested.

We hope everyone's having a great summer so far ☀️

02/02/2024

Hello everyone! We've got another interesting study to share, please find a summary below:

This study is looking at autistic and non-autistic people’s attitudes towards research and the sharing of their research data. We would like to know what kind of data they would be happy to share, with whom, and how much involvement they would like to have in the process. We hope to use this information to guide and improve data sharing practices in autism research. For additional information, please visit https://qualtrics.kcl.ac.uk/jfe/form/SV_5AyMYMXng4FZvZs.

We are currently recruiting autistic and non-autistic adults (aged 18 years or above) for this project. We wondered if you could offer any help by circulating the attached flyer amongst your members via your newsletter and/or social media post?

If you have any questions or would like more information, please email the research team at [email protected] and we will answer any queries you may have.

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer and for your consideration.

03/01/2024

Happy New Year everyone! Please find below information about a research study recruiting autistic adults and contact the researcher directly if you're interested:

We know that physical activity may be beneficial for wellbeing, but that some autistic people experience barriers in accessing physical health activities. Our current study has two main goals. Our first goal is to find out what might stop or help autistic adults take part in physical activity. Our second goal is to ask autistic adults for their views on the best design for future studies that will look at the link between physical activity and mental health in autistic adults. Please find the study advert attached to this email, which will explain a little bit more about this research. If you have any questions about the study or are interested in participating, please contact Hollie Storey at [email protected].

18/12/2023

Festive greetings and happy holidays from the Longitudinal European Autism Project (LEAP) team at King’s College London.

It has been our privilege to have many of you back with us in the third phase of our study, LEAP3 (October 2021 - December 2023). To our committed volunteers and families who have been back with us in LEAP3, we thank you for your time and for sharing your experience with us.

If you haven’t been back with us for LEAP3 yet, we'd love to hear from you. Please email us at [email protected]. We are coming to the end of LEAP3 in a few months, and we want to see as many of you as possible. We also have remote assessments for those who cannot travel, so we can do a number of things online or on the phone/video calls.

Additionally, if you have changed your home addresses/contact details, please send us a direct message. We send cards and newsletters regularly to keep you updated, and we want to make sure you are receiving these in the post or email.

We wish you all the best in 2024!

*card designed by Sanjana Gandhi who's part of the LEAP team, you may have met her as a LEAP volunteer!

31/07/2023

Hello everyone, please find below exciting information about an art competition for all autistic people, co-designed with autistic representatives from the AIMS-2-TRIALS consortium!

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More Than Meets The Eye Art Competition Guidelines
Competition brief: Create an art piece that is either inspired by your autism or is an interpretation of autism.
Competition submissions: Opening April 2nd 2023 and closing 31st August 2023.

Competition categories:
• Adult individuals (art created without assistance)
• Adult individuals (art created with assistance)
• Adult groups (art created by a group of people 16 and over)

Division of prizes:
• 3 first prizes of 2000 euros
• 3 second prizes of 1000 euros
• 1000 euros split across 3 third prizes

Who can enter the competition:
• Autistic adults 16 years and over (with parental consent in certain countries, please see terms and conditions)

Website : www.more-than-meets-the-eye.co.uk
Instagram: MoreThanMeetsTheEye_Art
Twitter: MTMTE_Art
Facebook: MTMTE Facebook

15/05/2023

Calling autistic people aged 17-years and above to take part in research to capture views on different questionnaires being used in research to measure anxiety. If you’d like to know more, please contact [email protected]

03/01/2023

Happy new year from the LEAP team! Please find below information on a new exciting study:

CALLING THOSE INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING IN AUTISM RESEARCH!

If you are an autistic person aged 16+ who experiences anxiety and are in touch with mental health services, we are inviting you to take part in our study to test whether a new mobile phone app could help some autistic people feel less anxious.

The aim of the study is to test whether this new app, ‘Molehill Mountain’, can help autistic people better understand and self-manage their anxiety. Alongside using the app for 13-weeks, you will be asked questions about anxiety, autistic traits, and your personal goals. At the end of the 13 weeks, we will invite you to complete a feedback survey and optional interview about your experiences of using the app. We will also ask you about your anxiety, autistic traits, and goals again after the study to see whether these aspects have changed over time.

We hope this study might contribute to improving mental health support and outcomes for autistic people. As compensation for your time, we offer £15 shopping vouchers. For more information about the study, or any questions please contact our team at [email protected].

13/12/2022

Festive greetings and happy holidays from the Longitudinal European Autism Project (LEAP) team at King’s College London! What a year it has been for us – Since October 2021, we have seen many of you back with us for LEAP Wave 3 (LEAP3) and it has been so lovely to catch up about all the things you’ve been up to.

To our volunteers and families who have already been back for LEAP3, thank you so much for your time and effort in visiting us again.

If you haven’t been contacted or haven’t been back with us for LEAP3 yet – please get in touch with us any time at [email protected] to book in your visits, as we continue to see more families in 2023.

Additionally, if you have changed your home addresses/contact details, please dm us, so we can update these accordingly.

We wish you all the best for the new year and look forward to seeing everyone again soon.

*card designed by Marianne Savage, a multitalented placement student supporting the team!

18/08/2022

🧠🌟BRAIN EXPLORERS WANTED🌟🧠

Our colleagues from the PIP project (.brainexplorers) are recruiting young children aged between 2.5-4.5 years with and without neurodevelopmental conditions (autism, ADHD, developmental delay and epilepsy) to better understand variability in brain development, and how potential differences relate to a child's social, emotional, behavioural and cognitive development.

The first part of the PIP project can be completed remotely in the comfort of your home. It involves touchscreen-based games for your child, and parent-report questionnaires and interviews. The second part involves an in-person visit to the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London (). It includes interactive games, an EEG and eye-tracking session, and a MRI scan whilst your child is asleep.

As compensation for your time and energy you will receive a £50 gift voucher and a gift for your child. If you are interested in taking part or would like more info, please visit http://www.aims-2-trials.eu/pip-kcl-2/ and contact the PIP team at [email protected].

They look forward to hearing from you!

29/06/2022

Please share!

CALLING ALL PHELAN FAMILIES!!

We are recruiting people with Phelan McDermid Syndrome between the ages of 2-60 years (and their families) to take part in our research study!

If you would like to know more about taking part, please contact Dr Jennifer Cooke at [email protected]

29/06/2022

Hi all! We have created a new and updated page for the Synaptic Gene Study, which investigates rare synaptic gene conditions associated with autism, such as Phelan McDermid Syndrome and NRXN1 deletion syndrome.

If you are interested to learn more please follow us! Please also share among your communities.

Thank you for your ongoing support! 🙏

www.facebook.com/SynaGKCL

We investigate rare genetic conditions associated with autism, specifically Phelan McDermid Syndrome!