Skip to main content

Rachel Elise Aiello

Assistant Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Psychiatry, Child & Family Mental Health & Community Psychiatry
2608 Erwin Road, Suite 300, Durham, NC 27705

Selected Publications


Behavioral characteristics of toddlers later identified with an autism diagnosis, ADHD symptoms, or combined autism and ADHD symptoms.

Journal Article J Child Psychol Psychiatry · September 3, 2024 BACKGROUND: Autism commonly co-occurs with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but less is known regarding how ADHD symptoms impact the early presentation of autism. This study examined early behavioral characteristics of a community sample of ... Full text Link to item Cite

Adaptive Behavior in Young Autistic Children: Associations with Irritability and ADHD Symptoms.

Journal Article J Autism Dev Disord · September 2024 Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms affect 40-60% of autistic children and have been linked to differences in adaptive behavior. It is unclear whether adaptive behavior in autistic youth is directly impacted by co-occurring ADHD sympto ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome in Young Autistic Children, Children with ADHD, and Autistic Children with ADHD.

Journal Article J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol · June 20, 2024 OBJECTIVE: Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome (CDS; previously called Sluggish Cognitive Tempo) refers to a constellation of cognitive and motor behaviors characterized by a predisposition toward mind wandering (cognitive subdomain) and slowed motor behavior ... Full text Link to item Cite

Computer Vision Analysis of Caregiver-Child Interactions in Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Preliminary Report.

Journal Article J Autism Dev Disord · June 2024 We report preliminary results of computer vision analysis of caregiver-child interactions during free play with children diagnosed with autism (N = 29, 41-91 months), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, N = 22, 48-100 months), or combined autis ... Full text Link to item Cite

Relationship between quantitative digital behavioral features and clinical profiles in young autistic children.

Journal Article Autism Res · July 2023 Early behavioral markers for autism include differences in social attention and orienting in response to one's name when called, and differences in body movements and motor abilities. More efficient, scalable, objective, and reliable measures of these beha ... Full text Link to item Cite

Blink rate and facial orientation reveal distinctive patterns of attentional engagement in autistic toddlers: a digital phenotyping approach.

Journal Article Sci Rep · May 3, 2023 Differences in social attention are well-documented in autistic individuals, representing one of the earliest signs of autism. Spontaneous blink rate has been used to index attentional engagement, with lower blink rates reflecting increased engagement. We ... Full text Link to item Cite

Complexity analysis of head movements in autistic toddlers.

Journal Article Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · January 2023 BackgroundEarly differences in sensorimotor functioning have been documented in young autistic children and infants who are later diagnosed with autism. Previous research has demonstrated that autistic toddlers exhibit more frequent head movement ... Full text Cite

A scalable computational approach to assessing response to name in toddlers with autism.

Journal Article J Child Psychol Psychiatry · September 2021 BACKGROUND: This study is part of a larger research program focused on developing objective, scalable tools for digital behavioral phenotyping. We evaluated whether a digital app delivered on a smartphone or tablet using computer vision analysis (CVA) can ... Full text Link to item Cite

Computational Methods to Measure Patterns of Gaze in Toddlers With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Journal Article JAMA Pediatr · August 1, 2021 IMPORTANCE: Atypical eye gaze is an early-emerging symptom of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and holds promise for autism screening. Current eye-tracking methods are expensive and require special equipment and calibration. There is a need for scalable, fea ... Full text Link to item Cite

A pilot investigation of an iOS-based app for toilet training children with autism spectrum disorder.

Journal Article Autism · February 2019 We developed an iOS-based app with a transmitter/disposable sensor and corresponding manualized intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder. The app signaled the onset of urination, time-stamped accidents for analysis, reminded parents to reinf ... Full text Link to item Cite

National Study of School Psychologists’ Use of Evidence-Based Assessment in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Journal Article Journal of Applied School Psychology · January 2, 2017 This study aimed to better understand predictors of evidence-based assessment practices for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Nationwide, 402 school psychologists were surveyed for their knowledge of and training and experience with ASD on assessment practic ... Full text Cite

Use of urine alarms in toilet training children with intellectual and developmental disabilities: A review.

Journal Article Res Dev Disabil · 2016 The purpose of this review is to describe and evaluate the existing research on the use of urine alarms in the daytime toilet training of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). A systematic literature search yielded 12 studies, ma ... Full text Link to item Cite