Expert clinical panel

Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist (Senior Teaching Fellow, University of Leicester)

Dr Khalid Karim is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist for Leicestershire NHS Partnership Trust, and Senior Teaching Fellow for the University of Leicester. Khalid is the lead on ASD at Leicestershire Trust and works clinically with children with the condition. He has recently published a book for parents and professionals on autism and mental health with Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Khalid has a general research interest in child mental health, particularly ASD, and is currently involved in a child psychiatry project which is using CA to explore initial child mental health assessments in CAMHS.

• kk55@le.ac.uk
• Learn more about Dr Khalid Karim

Publications related to autism

• Karim, K., Ali, A., and O’Reilly, M. (In press). A Practical Guide to Mental Health Problems in Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder: “It’s not just their autism!. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• Karim, K., Cook, L., and O’Reilly, M. (2012). Diagnosing Autistic Spectrum Disorder in the age of austerity. Child: Care, Health and Development, doi:10.1111/j.1365-214.2012.01410.x
• O’Reilly, M., Cook, L., and Karim, K. (2012). Complementary or controversial care? The opinions of professionals on complementary and alternative interventions for Autistic Spectrum Disorder. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17 (4), 602-615.

Other related publications

• Dogra N and Karim K (in press) An update on Training in Diversity For Psychiatrists. In Bhattacharya R, Cross S and Bhugra D (Eds) Clinical Topics in Cultural Psychiatry. Royal College of Psychiatrists: London
• Dogra N, Ronzoni P and Karim K (in press) Migration and child mental health. In Bhugra D (Ed) Proceedings of an International Meeting on Migration. Royal College of Psychiatrists: London
• O’Reilly, M., Karim, K., Taylor, H., and Dogra, N. (2012) Parent and child views on anonymity: ‘I’ve got nothing to hide’.  International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 15 (3), 211-224.
• Yadav, V., O’Reilly, M. and Karim, K. (2010). Secondary school transition: does mentoring help ‘at risk’ children? Community Practitioner, 83 (4), 24-28.

Speech and Language Therapist

Dr Tom Muskett is a Senior Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University, UK. Tom is a Speech and Language Therapist with a particular clinical interest in working with children with diagnoses of autism and their families. Informed by these experiences, Tom’s research aims to explore how Conversation Analysis accounts of interactions involving such children interface with mainstream and critical/radical approaches to theorising the diagnosis, and how discursive methodologies might underpin novel and progressive approaches to professional practice.

Publications related to autism

• Muskett, T. and Body, R. (in press). The case for multimodal analysis of atypical interaction: questions, answers and gaze in play involving a child with autism. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics.
• Muskett, T., Body, R. and Perkins, M. (2013). A Discursive Psychology critique of semantic verbal fluency assessment and its interpretation. Theory & Psychology, 23, 205-226.
• Muskett, T., Body, R., and Perkins, M. (2012). Uncovering the dynamic in static assessment interaction. Child Language Teaching Therapy, 28, 87-99.
• Muskett, T., Perkins, P., Clegg, J., and Body, R. (2010). Inflexibility as an interactional phenomenon: using conversation analysis to re-examine a symptom of autism. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 24, 1-16.

Selected autism conference presentations

• Muskett T (2011) Examining language and communication in autism in context. Invited paper presented at ComSym 2011, Paris Decartes University, February 2011.
• Muskett T (2012).  On saying what you see: a preliminary discursive re-examination of the ‘joint attention deficit’ in children with autism.  Paper presented at CMARG/DARG International Conference, Loughborough University, March 22nd 2012.
• Muskett T (2012) Giving conversation the time it deserves: Using Conversation Analysis to facilitate social interactions involving individuals on the autism spectrum. Paper presented at Communication: The Key To Success, Edgehill University, June 15th 2012.
• Muskett T (2013) Is ‘autism’ about individuals or interactions? Invited paper presented at Demedicalising Childhood: Perspectives on Autism, Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth, University of Sheffield, January 28th 2013.
• Muskett T (2013) When you change the method, you change the ‘disorder’: Constructionist research adventures in the field of autism studies. Paper presented at Disability UoS Inaugural Research Meeting, University of Sheffield, February 13th 2013.
• Muskett T (2013) “This is just a game... isn't it?”: Differentiating ‘pretending’ and ‘doing pretence’ in the play of a child with autism.  Invited Departmental seminar presented at the School of Psychology, University of Lincoln, March 6th 2013.
• Muskett, T (2013)  Autism and social play: what the experiments don’t tell you.  Paper presented at Atypical Interaction: Conversation Analysis and Communication Difficulties, University of Sheffield, June 27th 2013.

Senior Clinical Psychologist (Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation)

Dr Nicola Kiyimba is a Senior Clinical Psychologist currently working for the Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. She has clinical experience in the assessment and implementation of therapeutic interventions with children and families, particularly those in Looked After settings including foster care and adoptive families. Nicola also has a wealth of practical experience working with children and young people for more than two decades as a Youth Worker, School Governor, Business Mentor, and Prison Volunteer. In addition she has worked for Relate UK and Samaritans as a project manager developing curriculum for children, and training counsellors in working with young people. Before embarking on a Clinical career, Nicola completed a PhD in Psychology to further her research interest in the interactions between adults and children in therapeutic settings. Her research is informed by a social constructionist perspective favouring the analysis of intergenerational interactions in therapy environments using discursive approaches.

Publications related to autism

• O’Reilly, M. and Parker, N. (2014). Doing Mental Health Research with Children and Adolescents: A Guide to Qualitative Methods. London: Sage.
• Parker, N., and O’Reilly, M. (2013). Reflections from behind the screen: avoiding therapeutic rupture when utilising reflecting teams. The Family Journal: Counseling for Couples and Families, 21 (2), 170-179.
• O’Reilly, M. and Parker, N. (2013). ‘You can take a horse to water but you can’t make it drink’: Exploring children’s engagement and resistance in family therapy. Contemporary Family Therapy, 35 (3), 491-507
• Parker, N. and O’Reilly, M. (2012). ‘Gossiping’ as a social action in family therapy: The pseudo-absence and pseudo-presence of children. Discourse Studies, 14 (4) 1-19.
• Hutchby, I., O’Reilly, M. and Parker, N. (2012). Ethics in Praxis: Negotiating the Role and Functions of a Video Camera in Family Therapy. Discourse Studies, 14 (6) 675-690.
• O’Reilly, M. and Parker, N. (2012) “She needs a smack in the gob”: negotiating what is appropriate talk in front of children in family therapy. Journal of Family Therapy doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6427.2012.00595.x

Lead Forensic Speech and Language Therapist

I am currently working as the lead Forensic Speech and Language Therapist at the Humber Centre, Humber Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. I work with a range of complex and difficult to treat people, all of whom are detained under the Mental Health Act.

Currently I’m working on the development of an adult autistic spectrum conditions (ASC) diagnostic and treatment service for forensic patients at the Humber Centre. This is a medium secure psychiatric hospital where many of the patients have been in long term care and hence may never have been assessed for ASCs, as the diagnosis did not appear in the DSM manuals until 1994. I also work for the Adult Asperger’s Diagnosis service as part of the community team for Humber Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.

My interest in ASCs began when I studying for my BA (Hons) in Linguistics and Social Anthropology at Manchester University between 1988 and 1991. I registered for my PhD with the University of Sheffield in 1994 on the topic of Repetitiveness and Formulaicity in the Conversation of Adults with ASCs, supervised by Professor Jill Boucher and Professor Mick Perkins. While studying I presented papers at conferences in Barcelona, Hong Kong, Toronto, UCL, Glasgow and Durham Universities on the topic of language use in adults with autism. At Toronto University I sat on an expert panel on Disorder in Talk. I was a member of the York University Disordered Conversation Research Group from 1996 – 2003. I also worked as a research assistant, collecting and collating date for the Pre School Language Scales III assessments.

I have taught linguistics and phonetics at the Universities of Huddersfield, Sheffield and the Open University. In 1997 I was appointed as a University Lecturer in Linguistics at York St John’s where I taught phonetics, psycholinguistics and general linguistics and became senior lecturer and Head of Programme there in 1999.

In 2005, I qualified as an SLT and since then have incorporated research into my work. I am currently working on an NHS approved project entitled Conversation Analysis of Confabulation among Patients on a Forensic Learning Disabilities Ward, looking at how non-intentional verbal deception arises in talk between clinicians and patients.

• sushie.dobbinson@humber.nhs.uk

Publications relating to autism

• 2017: Sushie Dobbinson, "The interaction is the work: Rehabilitating risk in a forensic patient with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Learning Disability" in A Practical Guide to Social Interaction Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders (forthcoming)
• 2016: Sushie Jayne Dobbinson, "Systemizing and empathy in forensic ASD talk", Advances in Autism, Vol. 2 Issue: 4, pp.179-190, https://doi.org/10.1108/AIA-05-2016-0013
• 2016: Sushie Dobbinson, "Conversation with an adult with features of Autism Spectrum Disorder" in secure care in the Palgrave Handbook of Adult Mental Health Chapter 22
• 2006: Michael R Perkins; Sushie Dobbinson; Jill Boucher; Simone Bol; Paul Bloom "Lexical knowledge and lexical use in autism." Journal of autism and developmental disorders 2006;36(6):795-805.
• 2005: Sushie Dobbinson, "Phonetics in Introducing Language in Use." Oxford: Routledge.
• 2004: Kate Trott; Sushie Dobbinson, Patrick Griffiths (Eds) "Child Language Reader". London: Routledge
• 2003: Sushie Dobbinson, Mick Perkins, Jill Boucher, "The interactional significance of formulas in autistic language". Clinical linguistics and phonetics 2003;17(4-5):299-307.
• 1998: S Dobbinson, M R Perkins, J Boucher "Structural patterns in conversations with a woman who has autism." Journal of communication disorders 1998;31(2):113-33; quiz 133-4.

Clinical Psychologist

Katie Denman is a Clinical Psychologist. Katie has worked clinically in a number of settings including child mental health and children with learning disabilities and been in involved in publications of research with children. Katie is also trained in the Foundation level of Family Therapy accredited by the Association of Family Therapy. Currently Katie works in a Child Development Centre with children with neuro-developmental conditions including Autism Spectrum Condition and their families.

Katie has now completed her doctoral research exploring family talk around a child’s behaviour before they have been given a diagnosis of ASC drawing on a synthetic approach of discursive psychology with conversational analysis tools. Katie has developed an interest in how whole families make sense of a child’s behaviour before it has been labelled by professionals and what this can add to our knowledge of what discourses families are bringing to ASC assessments.

katie.denman@nhs.net

Publications related to autism

• Denman, K., Smart, C., Dallos, R. and Levett, P. (2016) How families make sense of their child's behaviour when on an autism assessment and diagnosis waiting list. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. DOI:10.1007/s10803-016-2873-7