Prof. Carolien Rieffe | Leiden University | University of Twente
Guida is an Invited Assistant Professor at the University of Évora, Portugal. Her research is focused on play and other leisure activities and social-emotional development. Now she is co-supervising Brenda Sousa da Silva's PhD thesis along with Carolien Rieffe and Johan Frijns on play in children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.
April 2nd, 2021
April is World Autism Acceptance Month, and April 2nd marks International Autism Awareness Day. First designated by the United Nations back in 2008, every year, this is the time to promote public awareness and acceptance of autism and the different phenotypes in males and females; and also address global efforts on research and activities enhancing acceptance of the diversity within Autism, thus defying stereotypes. Click here to read a blog on autistic high schoolers and how they may utilise “weak ties” socially; and click here to find out how autistic students can find safe spaces at school. These articles reveal how autistic students can navigate social inclusion in the school environment, taking into account the huge diversity of social goals within the population.
Read more ...February 26th, 2021
Today at the end of February 2021, sending our sincere words of thanks and love to Lisa, who is leaving our Focus on Emotions lab. Lisa has been a valued member of our team for over two years and made numerous contributions to the ongoing projects. She is a bright character as a colleague and as a friend, who is always thoughtful and willing to provide support.
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February 22nd, 2021
Our new master student Claudia Libbi (University of Twente) aims to design a serious game for girls with autism for a hands-on experience of navigating different (difficult) peer interactions whilst staying calm. Kick off meeting with Els Blijd (lnter-Psy) and Carolien ( Human Media Interaction , University of Twente) to discuss which steps to take and whom to involve.
January 5th, 2021
Understanding emotions from other people’s faces and from social situations is essential for daily social interaction. But how is that for children with hearing loss? Can they learn to understand emotions just as easily as hearing children?Through a collaboration between Developmental Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, and Otorhinolaryngology (LUMC and Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital Taiwan), Yung-Ting’s unique eye-tracking studies show that daily "exposure" in the social environment in which emotions take place is essential for the development of this aspect of emotional intelligence. The results are now published in Emotion and Ear & Hearing.
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March 26th, 2021
March 25, Brenda presented at the International Congress of Early Childhood Outdoor Practices on play in Portuguese preschool children with hearing loss in mainstream or special schools.
Read more ...March 19th, 2021
March 19th, at the 20th National Autism Congress, Carolien presented a workshop on social inclusion for pupils with autism. Focus was on issues that pupils with autism had identified during focus group meetings. Their input is essential in developing “autism-welcome” schools.
February 17th, 2021
Jiayin received her China Government Scholarship (CSC) in 2020 and started in our lab January 2021. She will be under the supervision of Carolien and Boya. Jiayin’s thesis focuses on social-emotional functioning in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Congratulations Jiayin and welcome.
Our team is located at the department of Developmental Psychology of Leiden University and at the Human Media Interaction at the technical University of Twente, both in the Netherlands. We work in close collaboration with the ENT department of the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), the mental health organisations INTER-PSY (Groningen) and Curium-LUMC, the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS), and TU Delft. Our group is dedicated to examining the development of emotional intelligence of children and adolescents from a very young age; with a strong focus on its impact on children's social development. Besides typically developing children and adolescents, we are interested in the development of those who are deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH), with autism, or with a Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Currently, we have an ongoing project on social inclusion at schools that utilises sensor technology with DHH and autistic children. Since 2017, our team has also been working in close collaboration with a centre for DHH children in China.
On this site we will post regular news items about new publications, events, and other important news. You can also read more about our ongoing projects, read about/download questionnaires we have developed, peruse the list of our publications per topic, or learn about opportunities for students to join our team.