Professor Margot Prior AO
B.Mus. BA. M.Sc. PhD. FASSA, FAPS
Professor
Contact details:
| email:priorm@unimelb.edu.au | |
| telephone: +61 3 8344 4906 |
Prof Prior has been an academic, clinician, and researcher in the field of family and child development for more than 35 years, at Monash, LaTrobe and Melbourne Universities. She was until 2002 the Director of Psychology at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne.
She has written and/or edited seven books and has also published more than 200 scientific papers and chapters in her various areas of expertise in child development and clinical psychology. She consults to many national and international agencies. Her current research is focused on early markers of Autism Spectrum Disorders, and on a longitudinal study of children’s language and literacy development from infancy to school age
She was a Founder of the Victorian Parenting Centre, and the Learning Difficulties Centre at the Royal Children's Hospital. She has also worked in aboriginal mental health and in developing psychology in Vietnam.
Research Interests:
- Autism
- Learning difficulties
- Communication disorders
- Social inequalities in children's health and well-being
Professional Associations, Memberships & Awards:
- Order of Australia
- Patron, Autism Victoria
- Australian Psychological Society Award for Distinguished Contribution to Psychology
- Senior Australian of the year for Victoria 2006
- Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia
Recent Publications: |
Books:
Prior, M. (1996). Understanding Specific Learning Difficulties. Hove, Sussex: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Prior, M., Sanson, A., Smart, D., & Oberklaid, F. (2000). Pathways from infancy to adolescence - Australian Temperament Project 1983-2000. Australian Institute of Family Studies.
Prior, M (Ed) (2003) Learning and Behaviour Problems in Asperger Syndrome. New York, Guilford Press.
Richardson S & Prior M (2005) No Time To Lose : The Wellbeing of Australia's children. Melbourne University Publishing
Book Chapters:
Prior, M. & Ozonoff S. (2005). Psychological factors in autism. In F. Volkmar (Ed). Childhood Autism. Cambridge University Press. pp 64-108. (second edition)
Sanson, A. & Prior, M. (1998). Temperamental and behavioural precursors to Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder, in H Quay & A Hogan (Eds). Handbook of Disruptive Behaviour Disorders, N.Y., Plenum Press.
Prior, M. (1999). Temperament and Coping, in E. Frydenberg (Ed). Learning to Cope: Developing as a Person in Complex Societies. Cambridge University Press, pp.22-33.
Refereed Journal Articles:
McGee R, Prior M, Williams S, Sanson A, and Smart D (2002) The long term significance of teacher-rated hyperactivity and reading ability in childhood: findings from two longitudinal studies. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 43, 7, 1004-1017.
Jorm, A., Prior, M., Sanson, A., Smart, D., Zhang, Y., & Easteal, S. (2003) Apolipoprotein E genotype and temperament: A longitudinal study from infancy to the late teens. Psychosomatic Medicine 65 : 662-664.
Villella S., and Prior, M. (2004) Arithmetic learning difficulties in children. Educational Psychology, (in press).
Barrett, S., Prior M., and Manjiviona J. (2004) Children on the Borderlands of Autism: differential Characteristics in social, imaginative, communicative, and repetitive behaviour domains. Autism : The International Journal of Research and Practice 8, 61-88.
Prior, M., Virasinghe, S. and Smart, D. (2005) Behavioural problems in Sri Lankan school Children: Association with socioeconomic status, age, gender, academic progress, ethnicity and religion. Social Psychology and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 40, 8, 654-662.
Castles, A., Crichton, A., & Prior, M. (2010) Developmental dissociations between reading and comprehension: Evidence from two cases of hyperlexia. Cortex, 46, 1238-1247.
Wilson K., & Prior, M. (2010) Father involvement: The importance of paternal Solo Care. Early Child Development and Care.
Eadie, P, Prior, M. et al (2010) Assessing Early Communication Behaviours:Structure and Validity of the Communication and Symbolic
Behaviour Scales Developmental Profile in 12 month Infants. International Journalof Language and Communication Disorders. 45, 5, 572-585
Havighurst, S., Wilson, K., Harley A., Prior, M. Kehoe, C. (2010) Tuning in to Kids: Improving emotion socialization practices in parents of preschool children-findings from a community trial. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 51, 12, 1342-1350.
Reilly, S., Wake, M., Prior, M. et al. (2010) Predicting Language outcomes at 4 years of age: Findings from Early Language in Victoria Study. Pediatrics
P J Vuillermin, S L Brennan, C F Robertson, J B Carlin, M Prior, B M Jenner, M South. (2010) Anxiety is more common in children with asthma. Archives of Diseases in Childhood.
Prior, M., Bavin, E., & Ong, B. (2011) Predictors of school readiness in five -to six -year old children from an Australian longitudinal community sample. Educational Psychology 31, 1, 3-16
Veness, C., Prior, M., Bavin, E., Eadie, P., Cini, E. & Reilly, S. (2011) Early indicators of autism spectrum disorders at 12 and 24 months of age: A prospective, longitudinal comparative study. Autism.
Leekam, S., Prior, M., & Uljarivic, M. (2011) Restricted and repetitive behaviors in Autism Spectrum Disorders: A review of research in the last decade. Psychological Bulletin
Prior, M., Bavin, E., Cini, E., Eadie, P., & Reilly, S. (2011) Relationships between language impairment, temperament, behavioural adjustment and maternal factors, in a community sample of preschool children. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders