Iris Selten

Post doc

In December 2022, I started as a post-doctoral researcher at d’Arc. Previously, I worked as a researcher and child psychologist at Utrecht University and the University Medical Center in Utrecht. There, investigated the language development of children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS); this is a relatively common genetic disorder. About 30% of people with 22q11DS also have a diagnosis of autism. In one of my research projects, the focus was on the relationship between language difficulties and features of autism in these groups of children.

At d’Arc, I work on a research project named: “prevention of mental health problems in people with autism“. Such mental health problems comprise, for instance, depression, anxiety or psychosis. It is known that some of the people with autism receive professional help or treatment for these. Ultimately, we hope that the results of this study will provide leads to improve clinical practice, for example when it comes to implementing tailored support and care for mental health problems in people with autism.