Daniela Plesa-Skwerer

My main research interests are in the area of atypical development of language, communication and social cognition in children and adolescents with developmental disorders. Currently my work focuses on minimally verbal children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and their families, exploring behavioral profiles in this unique population, with a focus on language and communicative development. I am also interested in the various ways in which families perceive their children’s emotional development and understand their children’s experiences. In the ongoing projects in the lab I conduct semi-structured interviews with families and process assessments based on parent report – information that is essential for a rich phenotypic description of the children and adolescents with ASD who participate in our studies. I also serve as the Parent Educator and Family Coordinator for our TESLA project.