Anna Remington

University College London | UCL

Masking entails hiding or concealing one's traits during social interactions. Research suggests that masking is particularly common for autistic people, though many non-autistic people also conceal aspects of their identity. Existing research has identified the key motivations and consequences of masking. No research to date, however, has considere...

Autistic people are more likely to have mental and physical health problems than non-autistic people. Annual health checks could reduce these problems by finding and treating them early. Annual health checks are yearly medical appointments where a primary healthcare provider (such as a doctor or nurse) can check things like a patient's weight and h...

Employers’ knowledge and awareness about autism can be a key barrier to autistic people obtaining employment. The current study evaluated the efficacy of an online autism training programme, Understanding Autism in the Workplace, in changing employers’ autism knowledge and commitment to inclusion in the workplace. Employers (N = 129) from 22 organi...

Supported employment initiatives have been shown to increase employment rates for autistic people who want to enter the workforce. Despite the success of supported employment initiatives in increasing employment rates, little is known about the first-hand experiences and views of those involved. In the current study, we examined the experiences and...

Autistic people face high unemployment rates. One reason for this may be that hiring processes are inaccessible. This study aimed to establish autistic people’s unique experiences of hiring processes in the United Kingdom, by comparing them to the experiences of non-autistic neurodivergent people and neurotypical people. Using qualitative and quant...

Background: A growing body of research has sought to understand autistic people’s research priorities. Several of these studies have identified employment as a key research priority. Yet, there have been few attempts to identify specific, actionable priorities within this area. Methods: Using an online survey, we asked 197 autistic people in the UK...

This article examines 181 autistic adults’ views toward, and experiences of, requesting and receiving workplace adjustments in the UK. Using an online survey, we collected both qualitative and quantitative data relating to individuals’ experiences. While the majority of participants perceived workplace adjustments to be important, many were not rec...

Performance on a single executive function (EF) task (e.g., a card sorting task) is often taken to represent ability on the underlying subcomponent of EF (e.g., set shifting) without accounting for the non-specific and non-executive skills employed to complete the task. This study used a manualised battery of EF tasks to derive individual task scor...

Lay abstract: Recently, researchers have been interested in how autistic people experience loneliness. Yet, most of this research has focused on loneliness in autistic children and young people. We present the results of a systematic review on loneliness in autistic adults. A systematic review is a rigorous way of searching for all existing resear...

This research examined whether professional mentoring could have a positive effect on the occupational self-efficacy of autistic performing arts professionals. We compared the outcomes of one group who received mentoring to a waitlist control group. 26 participants took part in this study: 15 autistic mentees and 11 mentors, three of whom were also...

Introduction: At present, very few autistic people are employed, even though many want to be. It is important that their strengths are identified and valued to help them to find jobs that they enjoy, and that make good use of their skills. The aim of this study was to investigate what strengths autistic people have in the workplace, self-reported...

Aims Previous research has demonstrated that autistic individuals often experience difficulties accessing dental care, both as a result of autism specific difficulties and practitioners’ attitudes towards autism. However, very little research exists that explores dental professionals’ experiences of providing care to their autistic patients. The ai...

Education professionals (n = 41) in special schools were interviewed about supporting their autistic pupils transitioning to adulthood following the introduction of the Children and Families Act 2014. Our participants explained how they lacked the time to fully implement knowledge gained from training, leading to growing reliance on experiential ex...

Changes to special educational needs and disability (SEND) legislation in England were implemented in 2014. Here, we evaluate the impact of these changes from the perspective of 80 autistic young people aged 16–25 years. Using an online survey and/or interviews, we examined young people’s views on three key principles of the SEND reforms: the help...

Lay abstract: Autistic people can find it difficult to find and keep a job, and fewer autistic people are employed compared with people from other disability groups. There is not enough research in this area, especially research that directly compares the experiences of autistic and non-autistic colleagues starting in an organisation at the same t...

Autistic individuals often struggle to find and maintain employment. This may be because many workplaces are not suited to autistic individuals’ needs. Among other difficulties, many autistic employees experience distracting or disruptive sensory environments, lack of flexibility in work hours, and unclear communication from colleagues. One possibl...

Changes to special educational needs and disability (SEND) legislation in England were implemented in 2014, aiming to provide a radically different system for young people with SEND. In this research, we evaluated the impact of these changes from the perspective of autistic young people aged 16-25 years. Using an online survey and interviews, we ex...

Background. In 2014, changes to special educational needs and disability (SEND) legislation were introduced in England and Wales. These reforms aimed for young people and their families to receive the help and support they need, have a say regarding their support needs, and achieve better outcomes. We evaluated the impact of these reforms, five yea...

Educational professionals (n=41) in special schools were interviewed about supporting their autistic pupils transitioning to adulthood following the introduction of the Children and Families Act 2014. Education professionals explained how they lacked the time to fully implement knowledge gained from training, leading to growing reliance on experien...

Anthropomorphism - the attribution of human qualities to non-human objects - is believed to be a natural tendency which may serve several adaptive functions. One possibility is that anthropomorphism provides an egocentric heuristic by which we can understand the world. It may also be a strategy for reducing our subjective sense of loneliness. Howev...

Aims Previous international research has shown that autistic people have difficulty accessing dental care due to sensory processing, anxiety and communication issues. However, it is not known whether autistic adults in the United Kingdom are experiencing similar dental care barriers. The current study investigated autistic adults’ dental experience...

This study sought for the first time to identify the extent to which autistic people are pursuing careers in the performing arts, and to determine the nature of the relationship between individuals’ autistic traits and their reported wellbeing. To address these aims, we recruited a self-selecting, community-based sample of individuals working in th...

Background: Autistic individuals face challenges in the workplace, particularly related to social communication. Diagnostic disclosure may mitigate these challenges, but it also exposes individuals to potential discrimination. This study aimed to share the diagnostic disclosure experiences of autistic adults in the workplace to help employers bette...

This research examined in-depth the employment experiences of autistic performing arts professionals and the attitudes and adjustments of performing arts employers. We interviewed 18 autistic performing arts professionals and 19 performing arts employers. Autistic performing arts professionals described facing challenges in the workplace. Some auti...

Lay abstract: Despite possessing valuable skills, differences in the way that autistic people understand and respond to others in social situations mean that they are frequently disadvantaged in job interviews. We examined how autistic and non-autistic adults compared on standard (unmodified) job interview questions, and then used these findings t...

Public attitudes towards learning disabilities (LDs) are generally reported as positive, inclusive and empathetic. However, these findings do not reflect the lived experiences of people with LDs. To shed light on this disparity, a team of co-researchers with LDs created the first online survey to challenge public understanding of LDs, asking questi...

This article reports the findings of a small-scale qualitative study exploring the experiences of autistic adults who have had experience of the family justice system. While participants related some positive elements to their experiences, in particular with regard to the willingness of professionals to try to learn more about their clients’ needs,...

Background & aims According to parents, teachers and policymakers alike, including autistic children and young people in mainstream schools is notoriously difficult – especially so for the significant minority of young people on the autism spectrum with additional intellectual, communication and behavioural needs. The current study sought to unders...

Background: Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics to nonhuman agents. This common tendency is thought to be driven by a heightened motivation for social connection and may therefore be expected to be reduced in autistic individuals given that this group has been claimed to demonstrate reduced social motivation in some settin...

Background Over 1% of the UK population have a diagnosis of autism, and yet there is minimal information regarding the experiences of dental professionals working with people on the autistic spectrum. The current study is the first to investigate UK dental professionals' knowledge of autism, their perceived confidence when treating autistic patient...

Autistic individuals often face significant challenges to obtaining and maintaining meaningful employment – more so than other disability groups. Work placements appear to be an important step to promote employment outcomes, yet there remains a lack of knowledge about the real-life experiences of those involved in such schemes. This study is the fi...

Object personification is the attribution of human characteristics to non-human agents. In online forums, autistic individuals commonly report experiencing this phenomenon. Given that approximately half of all autistic individuals experience difficulties identifying their own emotions, the suggestion that object personification may be a feature of...

Although menarche and menstruation are perceived to be overwhelmingly negative events for developmentally-disabled women, women’s health issues remain under-researched in autism. Here, we conducted a preliminary investigation of the experiences of post-menarcheal autistic (n = 123) and non-autistic (n = 114) respondents to a brief online survey. Al...

Access to justice is a key theme in the family justice system, especially for those with particular vulnerabilities. Autism, a development condition characterised by difficulties in social communication and interaction, and the presence of rigid, repetitive behaviours, presents particular challenges in this area. This paper reports the findings of...

All children have the right to receive an education and to be included in school. Yet young people on the autism spectrum, who are already vulnerable to poor health and social outcomes, are at increased risk of school exclusion. The current study sought to understand the key factors surrounding the school exclusion experiences of a group of autisti...

Aim: A substantial proportion of children and young people with autism demonstrate accurate word reading but struggle to understand the content of what they are reading. There is an urgent need for further research in this area to enable educational professionals to implement evidence-based reading interventions. Method/Rationale: This study analys...

Background: In the UK, GPs play a key role in the identification and management of children, young people, and adults on the autism spectrum, but there is a paucity of research on GPs' perceptions of working with these patients. Aim: To understand GPs' perceived self-efficacy in identifying and managing their patients on the autism spectrum, and...

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has an intriguing auditory processing profile. Individuals show enhanced pitch discrimination, yet often find seemingly innocuous sounds distressing. This study used two behavioural experiments to examine whether an increased capacity for processing sounds in ASD could underlie both the difficulties and enhanced abili...

Background Autistic individuals commonly show circumscribed or “special” interests: areas of obsessive interest in a specific category. The present study investigated what impact these interests have on attention, an aspect of autistic cognition often reported as altered. In neurotypical individuals, interest and expertise have been shown to result...

In the visual domain there is considerable evidence supporting the Load Theory of Attention and Cognitive Control, which holds that conscious perception of background stimuli depends on the level of perceptual load involved in a primary task. However, literature on the applicability of this theory to the auditory domain is limited and, in many case...

Decreased attention span, hyperactivity, distractibility, and impulsivity are sensitive but non-specific brain functions and behavioral patterns. These expressions of altered functioning should be acknowledged as non-specific, rather than trying to fit them into existing diagnoses. These abnormalities should be viewed in terms of underlying develop...

Attention and awareness are known to be linked (e.g., see Lavie et al., 2014, for a review). However the extent to which this link changes over development is not fully understood. Most research concerning the development of attention has investigated the effects of attention on distraction, visual search and spatial orienting, typically using reac...

Objective: Attention research in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has produced conflicting results. Some findings demonstrate greater distractibility while others suggest superior focused attention. Applying Lavie's load theory of attention to account for this discrepancy led us to hypothesize increased perceptual capacity in ASD. P...

In a recent study, we showed that nonfood incentives combined with taste exposure increase children's acceptance of vegetables. However, the impact of children's previous experience of receiving food rewards is unknown. The present study investigated whether the experience of food rewards affects responses to an exposure-plus-reward intervention. O...

We examined whether the movement involved in a pointing gesture, depicted using point-light displays, is sufficient to cue attention in typically developing children (TD) and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (aged 8-11 years). Using a Posner-type paradigm, a centrally located display indicated the location of a forthcoming target on 80...

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) research portrays a mixed picture of attentional abilities with demonstrations of enhancements (e.g., superior visual search) and deficits (e.g., higher distractibility). Here we test a potential resolution derived from the Load Theory of Attention (e.g., Lavie, 2005). In Load Theory, distractor processing depends on...

The use of rewards to encourage children to eat healthily is controversial. However, researcher-led interventions have shown that incentives combined with taste exposure can increase both intake and liking. To date, this has not been tested in the home setting. The objectives were to test the hypothesis that parent-administered repeated taste expos...

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the role of attention in the processing of social stimuli in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Research has demonstrated that, for typical adults, faces have a special status in attention and are processed in an automatic and mandatory fashion even when participants attempt to ign...

Recent findings suggest that children with autism may be impaired in the perception of biological motion from moving point-light displays. Some children with autism also have abnormally high motion coherence thresholds. In the current study we tested a group of children with autism and a group of typically developing children aged 5 to 12 years of...

Recent findings suggest that children with autism may be impaired in the perception of biological motion from moving point-light displays. There have also been reports that some children with autism have abnormally high motion coherence thresholds. In the current study we tested a group of children with autism and a group of typically developing ch...

It has been suggested that the locus of selective attention (early vs. late in processing) is dependent on the perceptual load of the task. When perceptual load is low, irrelevant distractors are processed (late selection), whereas when perceptual load is high, distractor interference disappears (early selection). Attentional abnormalities have lon...

Background: A number of studies have reported that individuals with autism show reduced orienting to faces, voices and other social cues. Recent studies have reported data suggesting that 2 year old children with autism viewing a split screen, with an upright point-light display of biological motion on one side and an inverted point-light display o...

The contribution of genetic factors in the persistence of and early recovery from stuttering was assessed. Data from the Twins Early Development Study were employed. Parental reports regarding stuttering were collected at ages 2, 3, 4, and 7 years, and were used to classify speakers into recovered and persistent groups. Of 12,892 children with at l...