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Saritha Vermeer

Associate Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Psychiatry, Child & Family Mental Health & Community Psychiatry
DUMC 3527, Durham, NC 27710
2608 Erwin Road, Suite 300, Durham, NC 27705

Selected Publications


Attentional and electrophysiological associations with executive function ability in young autistic children.

Journal Article Sci Rep · July 10, 2025 Difficulties in executive functioning (EF) have been consistently reported in autistic individuals, but less is known about the attentional and neural mechanisms driving these difficulties. We explored the associations between EF abilities and sustained at ... Full text Link to item Cite

Assessment of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Young Autistic Children.

Journal Article J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol · July 9, 2025 OBJECTIVE: Co-occurring attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is present for many autistic children and is associated with increased impairments, unique treatment needs, and decreased response to autism-specific interventions. Diagnosing ADHD in ... Full text Link to item Cite

Automated Video Tracking of Autistic Children's Movement During Caregiver-Child Interaction: An Exploratory Study.

Journal Article J Autism Dev Disord · October 2024 Objective, quantitative measures of caregiver-child interaction during play are needed to complement caregiver or examiner ratings for clinical assessment and tracking intervention responses. In this exploratory study, we examined the feasibility of using ... Full text Link to item Cite

Automated movement tracking of young autistic children during free play is correlated with clinical features associated with autism.

Journal Article Autism · November 2023 Play-based observations allow researchers to observe autistic children across a wide range of ages and skills. We recorded autistic children playing with toys in the center of a room and at a corner table while a caregiver remained seated off to the side a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Associations between executive function and attention abilities and language and social communication skills in young autistic children.

Journal Article Autism · October 2023 Executive functioning describes a set of cognitive processes that affect thinking and behavior. Past research has shown that autistic individuals often have delays in the acquisition of executive function abilities. Our study explored how differences in ex ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Shorter average look durations to dynamic social stimuli are associated with higher levels of autism symptoms in young autistic children.

Journal Article Autism · August 2022 Many studies of autism look at the differences in how autistic research participants look at certain types of images. These studies often focus on where research participants are looking within the image, but that does not tell us everything about how much ... Full text Link to item Cite

Digital Behavioral Phenotyping Detects Atypical Pattern of Facial Expression in Toddlers with Autism.

Journal Article Autism Res · March 2021 Commonly used screening tools for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) generally rely on subjective caregiver questionnaires. While behavioral observation is more objective, it is also expensive, time-consuming, and requires significant expertise to perform. As ... Full text Link to item Cite

Gastrointestinal problems are associated with increased repetitive behaviors but not social communication difficulties in young children with autism spectrum disorders.

Journal Article Autism · February 2021 Individuals with autism spectrum disorder are more likely than typically developing individuals to experience a range of gastrointestinal abnormalities, including chronic diarrhea, constipation, food sensitivities, and abdominal pain. These gastrointestina ... Full text Link to item Cite

Impact of a digital Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers-Revised on likelihood and age of autism diagnosis and referral for developmental evaluation.

Journal Article Autism · October 2020 This was a project in primary care for young children (1-2 years old). We tested a parent questionnaire on a tablet. This tablet questionnaire asked questions to see whether the child may have autism. We compared the paper and pencil version of the questio ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Six-Minute Measure of Vocalizations in Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Journal Article Autism Res · August 2020 To improve early identification of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we need objective, reliable, and accessible measures. To that end, a previous study demonstrated that a tablet-based application (app) that assessed several autism risk behaviors distinguis ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

A Phase II Randomized Clinical Trial of the Safety and Efficacy of Intravenous Umbilical Cord Blood Infusion for Treatment of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Journal Article J Pediatr · July 2020 OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether umbilical cord blood (CB) infusion is safe and associated with improved social and communication abilities in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). STUDY DESIGN: This prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, doubl ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Author Correction: Atypical postural control can be detected via computer vision analysis in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder.

Journal Article Sci Rep · January 14, 2020 An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper. ... Full text Link to item Cite

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SENSORY PROCESSING DIFFERENCES AND CLINICAL FEATURES OF CHILDREN WITH ASD

Conference JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRY · October 1, 2019 Full text Link to item Cite

Computer vision analysis captures atypical attention in toddlers with autism.

Journal Article Autism · April 2019 To demonstrate the capability of computer vision analysis to detect atypical orienting and attention behaviors in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder. One hundered and four toddlers of 16-31 months old (mean = 22) participated in this study. Twenty-two ... Full text Link to item Cite

Atypical postural control can be detected via computer vision analysis in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder.

Journal Article Sci Rep · November 19, 2018 Evidence suggests that differences in motor function are an early feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One aspect of motor ability that develops during childhood is postural control, reflected in the ability to maintain a steady head and body positio ... Full text Link to item Cite

A genomic screen of autism: evidence for a multilocus etiology.

Journal Article Am J Hum Genet · August 1999 We have conducted a genome screen of autism, by linkage analysis in an initial set of 90 multiplex sibships, with parents, containing 97 independent affected sib pairs (ASPs), with follow-up in 49 additional multiplex sibships, containing 50 ASPs. In total ... Full text Link to item Cite