by 
Maria is a PhD student at CRAE, tracking and evaluating an education to employment programme for autistic young people called Employ Autism, which was set up by the autism charity Ambitious about Autism. Anna Remington (CRAE) and Brett Heasman (York St John University) supervise Maria’s research. Maria’s PhD will draw upon the infrastructure for gathering data set up by DARE, and add to DARE’s evidence base.
Before starting as a PhD student, Maria joined CRAE as a Research Assistant in May 2019, working on the Research Passport project and Research Toolkit funded by Autistica, as well as assisting on a number of other projects at CRAE.
Maria completed her BSc in Psychology and MSc in Social and Applied Psychology at the University of Kent. Since graduating, Maria worked as a Research Assistant on two developmental psychology research projects about Education Health and Care plans and a transition to secondary school in autistic children and children with Williams syndrome and Down syndrome. Maria has also volunteered with mental health charities, including Mind and SLV Global.
On the web: Twitter | LinkedIn | Google Scholar | ResearchGate
Recent publications:
- Ashworth, M., Crane, L., Steward, R., Bovis, M., & Pellicano, L. (2020). Towards empathetic autism research: Developing an autism-specific Research Passport https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/dh3y5
- Crane, L., Hearst, C., Ashworth, M., Davies, J., & Hill, E. L. (2020). Supporting Newly Identified or Diagnosed Autistic Adults: An Initial Evaluation of an Autistic-Led Programme. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04486-4
- Harvey, H., Ashworth, M., Palikara, O., & Van Herwegen, J. (2020). The Underreporting of Vision Problems in Statutory Documents of Children with Williams Syndrome and Down Syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04520-5
- Ashworth, M., Palikara, O., & Van Herwegen J. (2019). Comparing parental stress of children with neurodevelopmental disorders: The case of Williams syndrome, Down syndrome and autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 32(5), 1047-1057. https://doi.org/10.1111/jar.12594
- Van Herwegen, J., Ashworth, M., & Palikara, O. (2019). Views of professionals about the educational needs of children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 91, 103422. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2019.05.001
- Van Herwegen, J., Ashworth, M., & Palikara, O. (2018) Parental views on special educational needs provision: Cross-syndrome comparisons in Williams syndrome, Down syndrome, and Autism Spectrum Disorders. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 80, 102-111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2018.06.014
- Palikara, O., Ashworth, M., & Van Herwegen, J. (2018) Addressing the educational needs of children with Williams syndrome: A rather neglected area of research? Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 48 (9), 3256-3259. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3578-x