The BeLAS team
The BeLAS project was born out of a collaboration between three research centers dediacted to autism in Flanders and Brussels: ACTE at ULB, RIDDL at UGent and LauRes at KU Leuven.
Supervisors
Mikhail Kissine
Principal investigator
Spokesperson
Mikhail Kissine is a professor of linguistics at ULB and principal investigator of the ACTE research center. His field of research lies at the crossroads of linguistics and cognitive sciences. He is also principal investigator and spokesperson of the BeLAS project.
Ilse Noens
Principal investigator
Ilse Noens is a professor of orthopedagogy at KU Leuven and coordinator of LAuRes. She looks at autism from an educational perspective and seeks leads for diagnostics and support. In the BeLAS study, she mainly focuses on the role of symbol formation and environmental factors.
Herbert Roeyers
Principal investigator
Herbert Roeyers is a professor of clinical psychology at UGent and director of the RIDDL research center. He studies neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism. He mainly investigates developmental trajectories and biomarkers in young children and infants with a higher probablility of developing autism, and the clinical application of this work through screening, diagnosis and early intervention.
Gaétane Deliens
Gaétane Deliens' research focuses on factors that may contribute to communicative difficulties and language delays in autism. She seeks to understand the processes underlying language difficulties, including the impact of sleep cycles, using behavioral and neurophysiological techniques.
Arnaud Destrebecqz
Arnaud Destrebecqz is an experimental psychologist whose main area of expertise is basic learning mechanisms. He has studied this issue in depth in adults, children and babies using behavioral and physiological measures.
Inge Zink
Inge Zink works on typical language development and developmental language disorders in monolingual and bilingual children. She is also interested in language development in children with autism.
Jean Steyaert
Jean Steyaert is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and studies, among others, the development of the clinical picture and neurobiology in children and adolescents with autism. In BeLAS, he has a consultative role in the research on the development of clinical features, as well as in the neurophysiological research.
Roeljan Wiersema
Roeljan Wiersema is a member of RIDDL, head of the EXPLORA research group and principal investigator of the EFFORT team at UGent. Using neuroimaging techniques, he studies attention, information processing, socio-comminucative skills and language development in autism.
Petra Warreyn
Petra Warreyn works mainly on early development and intervention in children who have a neurodevelopmental condition or who have a higher probability of developing one. She specializes in observational methods and has a strong interest in the relationship between context and development.
Researchers
Marielle Weyland
Postdoctoral researcher
Project coordinator
Marielle Weyland is a postdoctoral researcher at ACTE lab and coordinator for the BeLAS project. Her current research focuses on early language development on autistic children and infants with high likelihood of autism.
Lotte van Esch
Postdoctoral researcher
Lotte van Esch is a postdoctoral researcher at LauRes. Her area of expertise focuses on parenting in families where there is a child with autism or with a higher probability of developing autism.
Ellen Demurie
Postdoctoral researcher
Ellen Demurie is a postdoctoral researcher at the RIDDL research center. Her current research focuses on the social motivation, reward system and social context of young children with autism or with a higher probability of developing autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders
Federica Beccaria
Doctoral student
Federica Beccaria is a linguist and a doctoral student at ACTE. She is interested in variability in the language production of young children with autism.
Clara Rapp
Doctoral student
Clara Rapp is a doctoral student at ACTE. She is interested in how sleep quality predicts language acquisition trajectories in children with autism spectrum disorders aged 2-7 years.
Marine Petit
Doctoral student
Marine Petit is a doctoral student at ACTE. She is studying statistical learning and its impact on language development in autistic children aged 2 to 5 using EEG data.
Ines Brys
Doctoral student
Ines Brys is a PhD student at LAuRes and the Parenting and Special Education Research Unit at the KU Leuven. In the BeLAS project, she is interested in the relationship between language development and a number of environmental factors.
Klaartje Vertongen
Doctoral student
Klaartje Vertongen holds a master's degree in speech therapy and is currently pursuing a doctorate at KU Leuven. In the BeLAS project, she is interested in the developmental trajectories of language in autism.
Hanna Van de Vyver
Doctoral student
Hanna Van de Vyver obtained a master's degree in clinical psychology at UGent. In the BeLAS project, she is studying the influence of socio-communicative aspects on the language development of young children with autism.
Anouk Matthys
Doctoral student
Anouk Matthys obtained a master's degree in experimental and theoretical psychology at UGent in 2022. In the BeLAS project, she is interested in the brain processes that could influence language development in autism.
Lena Petrocelli
Research assistant
Lena Petrocelli is a neuropsychologist and works as a research assistant for the BeLAS project. Her role is to recruit participants as well as to assess the severity of autism, cognitive functions and analyze children’s language development.
Esther van der Deen
Research assistant
Esther van der Deen, master in clinical psychology, is a research assistant at KU Leuven. She will support the team in recruiting children and visiting participating families with the LabMobile. She is also involved in LAuRes.
Marlies Camerlinck
Research assistant
Marlies Camerlinck obtained her master's degree in education sciences in 2009 at UGent. Since 2021, she has joined the RIDDL research center as a research assistant and has contributed to several projects focusing on early development in autism.
Nele Bogaert
Research assistant
Nele Bogaert is a research assistant at UGent and for the BeLAS project. She is interested in the early development of young children with autism. In addition, she works in a parental guidance center for families with an autistic child.
Scientific collaborators
Pauline Maes
Scientific collaborator
Pauline Maes was a postdoctoral researcher at ACTE and coordinator for the BeLAS project for a year. She is now a postdoctoral researcher at Boston University
Her research focuses on the heterogeneity of language skills on young autistic children, with a particular interest in non- or minimally verbal children.
Roma Siugzdaite
Scientific collaborator
Her current research focuses on the neuroimaging techniques and statistical methods to investigate brain-behaviour relationship in young autistic children or other neurodevelopmental disorders.
Kat Van der Poorten
Voluntary scientific employee
Kat Van der Poorten holds a master's degree in educational sciences and is currently completing her master's degree in biology. She supports the team by visiting families with the LabMobile. She is interested in the emergence and evolution of natural language and alternative developmental pathways to language acquisition. She is also on the Executive Board of the Autistic Adults' Reading and Advisory Group (LAVA vzw).