Annette Estes

About

Annette Estes, PhD, is a Research Professor and the Director of the UW Autism Center at the University of Washington. She holds the Susan and Richard Fade Endowed Chair and is a licensed psychologist in the state of Washington. Her academic expertise includes autism spectrum disorders, child development, clinical psychology, and early intervention. Dr. Estes's research is focused on supporting autistic individuals and their families through clinical services, research, and education. She has served as the principal investigator on clinical trials aimed at supporting young autistic children and collaborates with institutions such as UC Davis, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Michigan. She is also part of the Infant Brain Imaging Study (IBIS) Network, where she serves as co-principal investigator and directs the behavioral core, with the goal of improving early recognition of infants at high familial likelihood of autism and identifying brain mechanisms to develop new strategies for improving outcomes. Her work emphasizes the role of family support in fostering positive developmental outcomes for children with developmental disabilities.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Audiology
• Medicine
• Clinical psychology

Selected publications

• A Multisite Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing the Effects of Intervention Intensity and Intervention Style on Outcomes for Young Children With Autism

  Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · 2020-08-24 · 101 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Sleep Onset Problems and Subcortical Development in Infants Later Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder

  American Journal of Psychiatry · 2020-05-07 · 93 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Objective: Sleep patterns in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) appear to diverge from typical development in the second or third year of life. Little is known, however, about the occurrence of sleep problems in infants who later develop ASD and possible effects on early brain development. In a longitudinal neuroimaging study of infants at familial high or low risk for ASD, parent-reported sleep onset problems were examined in relation to subcortical brain volumes in the first 2 years…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Functional connectivity between the visual and salience networks and autistic social features at school-age

  Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders · 2025-04-28 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is highly heritable and phenotypically variable. Neuroimaging markers reflecting variation in behavior will provide insights into circuitry subserving core features. We examined functional correlates of ASD symptomology at school-age, while accounting for associated behavioral and cognitive domains, in a longitudinal sample followed from infancy and enriched for those with a genetic liability for ASD. METHODS: Resting state functional connectivity MRIs…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Evaluating canonical babbling ratios extracted from day-long audio recordings in infants later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder

  Infant Behavior and Development · 2025-04-25 · 3 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Sleep in Infants with Down Syndrome or Familial Likelihood of Autism in the First Year of Life

  Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · 2025-06-23 · 3 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Sleep problems have been associated with atypical development, but there is limited understanding of when sleep problems arise and how they differ across clinical populations. We aimed to evaluate sleep characteristics of infants with Down syndrome (DS), higher familial likelihood of autism (HL) and lower familial likelihood of autism (LL) at 6 and 12 months of age. Participants were from two longitudinal, multi-site, studies. Sleep was estimated by parent report on the Brief Infant Sleep Questi…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant P50HD055782

  NIH · $22.0M · 2013

Frequent coauthors

• Stephen R. Dager

  Seattle University

  413 shared

• Robert T. Schultz

  University of Pennsylvania

  405 shared

• Joseph Piven

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  335 shared

• Heather C. Hazlett

  University of North Carolina Health Care

  326 shared

• Kelly N. Botteron

  Washington University in St. Louis

  324 shared

• Sarah Paterson

  James S. McDonnell Foundation

  287 shared

• Martin Styner

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  267 shared

• Guido Gerig

  254 shared

Education

• Ph.D Clinical Child Psychology, Psychology

  University of Washington

  1998

Awards & honors

• Susan & Richard Fade Endowed Chair

Similar researchers at University of Washington

• Andrew Meltzoffh-115
• Jennifer Stoneh-63
• Edythe Strandh-58