Consultant Speech and Language Therapist and
Director of Roundway Centre and IMPACT
Catherine is a clinical expert in early development and autism, founded on scientific research. She is a Research Fellow in Psychology and Mental Health within the School of Health Sciences at the University of Manchester.
Catherine is the founder of Roundway Centre, with the vision of taking the best expertise to families and schools, providing holistic assessments and support, implementing practical, individually tailored plans and therapy for children and young people. Our team bases their work on the highest-quality research evidence, in close collaboration with professionals, including paediatricians, education consultants, child psychologists, and psychiatrists.
Catherine has worked within public sector organisations, the N.H.S., and the University of Manchester, with over 40 years of experience in developing autism care pathways, undertaking diagnostic assessments and innovative therapy.
She is a certified trainer in ADOS-2 (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, University of Chicago, U.S.A.), BOSA (Brief Observation of Symptoms of Autism), A.D.I.R. (Autism Diagnostic Interview, University of Newcastle), and PACT. Catherine has also trained in iBASIS V.I.P.P. (parent-mediated, video-aided feedback therapy intervention).
Catherine developed a pioneering autism intervention based on her PhD work on parent-mediated early intervention, leading to over 20 years of collaborative research trials in PACT, Paediatric Autism Communication Therapy. This showed high effectiveness in improving long-term outcomes for autistic children. Catherine is currently collaborating on a number of international trials of parent-mediated therapy for autism in infancy and early childhood.
PACT has been widely implemented internationally and successfully adapted for low-income contexts in South Asia using task-shifting (PASS, COMPASS).
Catherine has developed sensitive outcome measures for autism trials, including the D.C.M.A. Dyadic Communication Measure of Autism, which is widely used in international research and clinical practice. https://www.pacttraining.co.uk/ http://research.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/pact/
Catherine has formed a not-for-profit social enterprise, IMPACT C.I.C., where she is co-director with Professor Jonathan Green.
MEMBERSHIPS/AFFILIATION
- Certified member of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists
- Registered Speech and Language Therapist with the Health Professions Council
- Association of Speech and Language Therapy in Independent Practice
- Member of the Pediatric Communication Disorders Research Group (North West)
QUALIFICATIONS/TRAINING
- B.Sc. Speech Pathology & Therapy (University College, Edinburgh,1982)
- PhD. In Communication (University of Manchester, 2003)
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Pickles, A., Le Couteur, A., Leadbitter, K., Salomone, E., Cole-Fletcher, R., Tobin, H., … & Aldred, C. (2016). Parent-mediated social communication therapy for young children with autism (PACT): long-term follow-up of a randomised controlled trial. The Lancet, 388(10059), 2501-2509. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673616312296
Aldred, C.R., Taylor, C., Wan, M.W. & Green, J. (2018). Using video feedback strategies in parent-mediated early autism intervention. In M. Siller & L. Morgan (Eds.), Handbook of parent-implemented interventions for very young children with autism (pp. 221–240). Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90994-3_14
Aldred, C.R., Green, J., Howlin, P., Le Couteur, A. & PACT therapists (2018). PACT Paediatric Autism Communication Therapy Intervention Manual. Hogrefe Publishing Group.
Aldred. C.R & Green J. (2019). PACT: Working with Parents and Carers to Help Autism Development Research Outreach, Issue 109. pp 137
Green J, Aldred C, Charman T, Le Couteur A, Emsley R A, Grahame V, et al. (2019) Paediatric Autism Communication Therapy-Generalised (PACT-G) against treatment as usual for reducing symptom severity in young children with autism spectrum disorder: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. Trials. 2018;19(1). Available from: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-018-2881-3
Green, J., Leadbitter, K., Ellis, C., Taylor, L., Moore, HL., Carruthers, S., James, K., Taylor, C., Balabanovska, M., Langhorne, S., Aldred, C., Slonims, V., Grahame, V., Parr, J., Humphrey, N., Howlin, P., McConachie, H., Le Couteur, A., Charman, T., Emsley R & Pickles A. (2022) Combined social communication therapy at home and in education for young autistic children in England (PACT-G): a parallel, single-blind, randomised controlled trial. Lancet Psychiatry, Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(22)00029-3
Green, J., Leadbitter, K., Ellis, C., Taylor, L., Moore, HL., Carruthers, S., James, K., Taylor, C., Balabanovska, M., Langhorne, S., Aldred, C., Slonims, V., Grahame, V., Parr, J., Humphrey, N., Howlin, P., McConachie, H., Le Couteur, A., Charman, T., Emsley R & Pickles A. (2022) An adapted social communication intervention at home and education to promote social communication change in children with severe autism: the PACT-G RCT. NIHR: An Efficacy and Mechanism Study, 2,3. Available from: ISSN 2050-4365
Roy, R., Leadbitter K., Shileds,G., Taylor, C., Aldred, C., Juneja M., Gulati S., Vajaratkar V., Davies L., Emsley, R., Patal V., Divan G., Green, J & Team C (2023) A randomised controlled trial of clinical and cost-effectiveness of the PASS Plus intervention for young children with autism spectrum disorder in New Delhi, India: study protocol for the COMPASS trial. ID: 5108974b-a5d9-43d4-9efc-ebe7c1876e40
Aldred, C.R., Taylor, C., Wan, M.W. & Green, J. (2018). Using video feedback strategies in parent-mediated early autism intervention. In M. Siller & L. Morgan (Eds.), Handbook of parent-implemented interventions for young children with autism (pp. 221–240). Cham: Springer.
Green, J., Rahman, A., Divan, G., Handani, SU., Vajaratkar, M., Taylor, C., Leadbitter, K., Aldred, C., Minhan, A., Cardozo, P., Elmsley, R., & Patel, V (2015). The Effectiveness of the Parent-mediated Intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorders in South Asia (PASS), an R.C.T. in India and Pakistan. Lancet Psychiatry, 3, 2, 128-136.
Minhas A., Vajaratkar, V., Divan, G., Handani, U., Leadbitter, K., Taylir, C., Aldred, C., Toriq, A., Toriq, M., Cardoza, P., Green, J., Patal, V & Rahman, A. (2015). Parents’ perspectives on the care of children with an autistic spectrum disorder in South Asia – Views from Pakistan and India. International Review of Psychiatry. DOI:10.3109/09540261.2015.1049128
Divan G., Hamdani SU, Vajaratkar V, Minhas A, Taylor C, Aldred C, Leadbitter K, Rahman A, Green J, Patel, V. (2015) Adapting an evidence-based intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorder for scaling up in resource-constrained settings: the development of PASS (Parent-mediated intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorders in South Asia). Global Health Action 5.
