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Naomi O. Davis

Assistant Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Psychiatry, Child & Family Mental Health & Community Psychiatry
Box 3527 Med Ctr, Durham, NC 27705
2608 Erwin Road Lakeview Pavi, Durham, NC 27705

Selected Publications


Digital Phenotyping based on a Mobile App Identifies Distinct and Overlapping Features in Children Diagnosed with Autism versus ADHD

Conference UIST Adjunct 2024 - Proceedings of the 37th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology · October 13, 2024 The high prevalence of autism calls for accessible and scalable technology-assisted screening tools. This will aid in early detection allowing timely access to services and supports. SenseToKnow, a mobile digital phenotyping app, showed potential in elicit ... Full text Cite

Factors Associated with Caregivers' Decisions to Pursue a Diagnostic Evaluation After a Positive Autism Screen in Primary Care.

Journal Article J Autism Dev Disord · October 7, 2024 PURPOSE: We sought to understand whether a child's sex, age, race, ethnicity, caregiver education, family income, and/or number of endorsed autism signs are associated with a caregiver's decision to pursue an autism diagnostic evaluation after their child ... Full text Link to item Cite

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

Behavioral Health Trends Among Perinatal North Carolina Medicaid Beneficiaries.

Journal Article N C Med J · August 2024 Untreated behavioral health conditions among the perinatal population are associated with high mortality and morbidity. We examined trends of behavioral health conditions and treatment received by perinatal Medicaid beneficiaries and described the characte ... Full text Link to item Cite

Brief Report: Relationships Between Caregiver-Reported Externalizing and Internalizing Behaviors and the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers.

Journal Article J Autism Dev Disord · July 12, 2024 PURPOSE: Early detection and intervention are associated with improved outcomes for autistic children. Thus, it is important to understand factors influencing early screening tools designed to detect autism. This study examined the relationship between car ... 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

Large-scale Validation of a Scalable and Portable Behavioral Digital Screening Tool for Autism at Home

Conference Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings · May 11, 2024 Autism, characterized by challenges in socialization and communication, benefits from early detection for prompt and timely intervention. Traditional autism screening questionnaires often exhibit reduced accuracy in primary care settings and significantly ... Full text Cite

Early detection of autism using digital behavioral phenotyping.

Journal Article Nat Med · October 2023 Early detection of autism, a neurodevelopmental condition associated with challenges in social communication, ensures timely access to intervention. Autism screening questionnaires have been shown to have lower accuracy when used in real-world settings, su ... 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

A tablet-based game for the assessment of visual motor skills in autistic children.

Journal Article NPJ Digit Med · February 3, 2023 Increasing evidence suggests that early motor impairments are a common feature of autism. Thus, scalable, quantitative methods for measuring motor behavior in young autistic children are needed. This work presents an engaging and scalable assessment of vis ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Complexity analysis of head movements in autistic toddlers.

Journal Article J Child Psychol Psychiatry · January 2023 BACKGROUND: Early 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 when vi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Use of North Carolina Medicaid Collaborative Care Billing Codes After Statewide Approval for Reimbursement.

Journal Article Psychiatr Serv · December 1, 2022 Effective October 2018, North Carolina Medicaid approved reimbursement for collaborative care model (CoCM) billing codes. From October 2018 through December 2019, only 915 of the estimated two million eligible Medicaid beneficiaries had at least one CoCM c ... Full text Link to item Cite

Racial and Ethnic Differences in Psychotropic Prescription Receipt Among Pediatric Patients Enrolled in North Carolina Medicaid.

Journal Article Psychiatr Serv · December 1, 2022 OBJECTIVE: The authors aimed to examine racial-ethnic differences in filled psychotropic prescriptions among a pediatric Medicaid population. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included patients ages 0-21 with at least one North Carolina Medicaid cla ... Full text Link to item Cite

Parental perspectives on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder treatments for children.

Journal Article Clin Child Psychol Psychiatry · October 2022 This study investigated parental perspectives and experiences on the evaluation and treatment process associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Five hundred sixty-eight parents of youth 2-28 years-old (M = 9.37; SD = 4.11) diagnosed ... Full text Link to item Cite

Inequities in Receipt of the North Carolina Medicaid Waiver Among Individuals with Intellectual Disability or Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Journal Article J Dev Behav Pediatr · September 1, 2022 OBJECTIVE: We examined characteristics associated with receiving the North Carolina Home and Community-Based Services Waiver for intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DDs) and its association with emergency department (ED) utilization. METHOD: Thr ... Full text Link to item 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

Sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) in an adult outpatient sample seeking an attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder assessment: Age of onset and assessment method impact on SCT rates.

Journal Article J Psychiatr Res · December 2020 BACKGROUND: Sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) is associated with-but distinct from-attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study examined SCT rates in adult outpatients seeking an ADHD assessment, differences in rates based on ADHD status, impac ... Full text Link to item Cite

Nonpharmacologic Treatments for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Systematic Review.

Journal Article Pediatrics · June 2018 CONTEXT: Nonpharmacologic treatments for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) encompass a range of care approaches from structured behavioral interventions to complementary medicines. OBJECTIVES: To assess the comparative effectiveness of nonpha ... Full text Link to item Cite

Proof-of-concept study of an at-home, engaging, digital intervention for pediatric ADHD.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2018 OBJECTIVE: Pharmacological and behavioral therapies have limited impact on the distinct neurocognitive impairments associated with ADHD, and existing cognitive training programs have shown limited efficacy. This proof-of-concept study assessed treatment ac ... Full text Link to item Cite

Career progress in online and blended learning environments.

Journal Article Acad Psychiatry · March 1, 2013 OBJECTIVE: The authors examined the career achievement of early- and mid-career researchers in social, behavioral, and mental health who participated in a career-development conference. METHOD: Trainees participated in a career-development conference eithe ... Full text Link to item Cite

Treatment for co-occurring attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder.

Journal Article Neurotherapeutics · July 2012 Interest in the co-occurrence of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has grown in the last decade. Research on clinical populations supports the frequent co-occurrence of ADHD traits (e.g., hyperactivity) in i ... Full text Link to item Cite

The efficacy of a Social Skills Group Intervention for improving social behaviors in children with High Functioning Autism Spectrum disorders.

Journal Article J Autism Dev Disord · August 2011 This study tested the efficacy of a new social skills intervention, S ocial S kills GR oup IN tervention-High Functioning Autism (S.S.GRIN-HFA), designed to improve social behaviors in children with high functioning autism spectrum disorders. Fifty-five ch ... Full text Link to item Cite

Parenting stress in mothers and fathers of toddlers with autism spectrum disorders: associations with child characteristics.

Journal Article J Autism Dev Disord · August 2008 Elevated parenting stress is observed among mothers of older children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but little is known about parents of young newly-diagnosed children. Associations between child behavior and parenting stress were examined in mothe ... Full text Link to item Cite

Atypical behaviors in children with autism and children with a history of language impairment.

Journal Article Res Dev Disabil · 2007 The frequency, course, and inter-relationships of atypical eating, sleeping, self-injurious behavior, aggression and temper tantrums in children with autism and children with a history of language impairment (HLI), was investigated using a parent interview ... Full text Link to item Cite

Comorbid psychiatric disorders in children with autism: interview development and rates of disorders.

Journal Article J Autism Dev Disord · October 2006 The Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia was modified for use in children and adolescents with autism by developing additional screening questions and coding options that reflect the presentation of psychiatric disorders in autism spec ... Full text Link to item Cite

Assessment of young children's social-emotional development and psychopathology: recent advances and recommendations for practice.

Journal Article J Child Psychol Psychiatry · January 2004 In this paper we have tried to document some of the recent advances in the conceptualization and assessment of early-emerging social-emotional and behavior problems, competencies, and psychopathology. Considerable evidence documents that young children evi ... Full text Link to item Cite