During this network-wide meeting, the ESRs met their complete advisory team, the other ESRs and the seniors from the different network sites. Training was provided on fundamental academic skills, including legal and ethical issues (good scientific practice, ethics of working with children, good clinical practice) and experimental training (setting up and designing experiments). This training week took place in Nijmegen from April 11th until April 15th.

• This training week was divided in two parts. In the first part, all ESRs presented a short pitch on their study topic:

Workpackage 1:

• Postnatal brain development and social competence in infancy and early childhood
• The contribution of genetic and environmental factors to individual differences in a variety of traits in infancy

Workpackage 2:

• An insight into epigenetics of attention in early development
• Fetal ultrasound screening for Neurodevelopmental Disorders in normal and high risk pregnancies
• Prenatal and early post-natal brain chemistry and connections in typical and atypical development
• The predictive value of early social information processing in infants at risk for ASD
• The role of atypical neural connectivity in the emergence of ASD
• The development of action understanding in infants at risk for autism

Workpackage 3:

• Behavioral observation of attention, impulsivity and response varaiability in infants and toddlers at risk for ASD and ADHD
• Emergent motor and synchrony patterns as predictors of atypical socio-communicative and attentional development using dynamical systems methods
• Motor development

Workpackage 4:

• Design and validation of the baby FaceReader
• Multimodal multidomain data intergration and prediction
• Parent-implemented intervention for children with ASD and effect on social communication and brain activation

 During the second part of the training the ESRs were trained in experimental observational measures & fundamental academic skills which included:

• Training on the The Observer software (Noldus). The training was provided for Leanne Loijens and dr. Petra Warreyn.
• Training on social communicative abilities, early communicative scales, parent-child interactions and measures and reliability of these interactions. The training was provided by dr. Sara Van der Paelt.
• Research ethics by dr Sabinne Hunnius and dr. Pim Haselager.
• Workshop about stress in infants and children by dr. Carolina de Weerth and Maartje Zijlmans.
• Training in setting infant EEG experiments and how to analyse the data using Field Trip. Given by dr. Robert Oostenveld.
• Data sharing by Ricarda Braukmann.