Judith S. Miller
VerifiedUniversity of Pennsylvania · Rehabilitation Medicine
Active 1981–2026
About
Judith S. Miller, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. Her clinical expertise includes the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders, including screening, early identification, differential diagnosis, co-occurring psychiatric conditions, and complex presentations across the lifespan from toddlers through adults. She also specializes in diagnosing Intellectual Developmental Disorders. Her research focuses on Autism Spectrum Disorders, particularly diagnostic and classification research, screening and early identification, psychiatric disorders within autism, and the autism phenotype in individuals with genetic disorders. Dr. Miller has contributed to understanding the clinical and neuropsychological aspects of autism, evaluating outcomes, and improving healthcare experiences for individuals with autism. She has been involved in research on genetic factors, electronic health records, and the impact of rare copy number variations in autism spectrum disorders. Her work aims to enhance diagnostic accuracy, inform clinical practices, and advance knowledge of autism's underlying mechanisms.
Research topics
- Psychiatry
- Pediatrics
- Family medicine
- Medicine
- Demography
- Psychology
Selected publications
Research in Autism · 2026-01-12
articleOpen accessJournal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · 2025-09-01
articleSSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01
preprintOpen accessThe Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation · 2025-04-01
articleJournal of Adolescent Health · 2025-10-29
editorialCognitive Science · 2025-10-01 · 3 citations
articleOpen accessAbstract Engaging in fluent conversation is a surprisingly complex task that requires interlocutors to promptly respond to each other in a way that is appropriate to the social context. In this study, we disentangled different dimensions of turn‐taking by investigating how the dynamics of child–adult interactions changed according to the activity (task‐oriented vs. freer conversation) and the familiarity of the interlocutor (familiar vs. unfamiliar). Twenty‐eight autistic children (16 male; = 10.8 years) and 20 age‐matched typically developing children (8 male; = 9.6 years) participated in seven task‐orientated face‐to‐face conversations with their caregivers (336 total conversations) and seven more telephone conversations alternately with their caregivers (144 total conversations, 60 with the typical development group) and an experimenter (191 total conversations, 112 with the autism group). By modeling inter‐turn response latencies in multi‐level Bayesian location‐scale models, we found that inter‐turn response latencies were consistent across repeated measures within social contexts, but exhibited substantial differences across social contexts. Autistic children exhibited more overlaps, produced faster response latencies and shorter pauses than typically developing children—and these group differences were stronger when conversing with the unfamiliar experimenter. Unfamiliarity also made the relation between individual differences and latencies evident: only in conversations with the experimenter were higher sociocognitive skills and lower social awareness associated with faster responses. Information flow and shared tempo were also influenced by familiarity: children adapted their response latencies to the predictability and tempo of their interlocutor's turn, but only when interacting with their caregivers and not the experimenter. These results highlight the need to construe turn‐taking as a multicomponential construct that is shaped by individual differences, interpersonal dynamics, and the affordances of the context.
UNC Libraries · 2025-10-23
articleOpen accessEngaging in fluent conversation is a surprisingly complex task that requires interlocutors to promptly respond to each other in a way that is appropriate to the social context. In this study, we disentangled different dimensions of turn-taking by investigating how the dynamics of child-adult interactions changed according to the activity (task-oriented vs. freer conversation) and the familiarity of the interlocutor (familiar vs. unfamiliar). Twenty-eight autistic children (16 male; M a g e $M_{age}$ = 10.8 years) and 20 age-matched typically developing children (8 male; M a g e $M_{age}$ = 9.6 years) participated in seven task-orientated face-to-face conversations with their caregivers (336 total conversations) and seven more telephone conversations alternately with their caregivers (144 total conversations, 60 with the typical development group) and an experimenter (191 total conversations, 112 with the autism group). By modeling inter-turn response latencies in multi-level Bayesian location-scale models, we found that inter-turn response latencies were consistent across repeated measures within social contexts, but exhibited substantial differences across social contexts. Autistic children exhibited more overlaps, produced faster response latencies and shorter pauses than typically developing children-and these group differences were stronger when conversing with the unfamiliar experimenter. Unfamiliarity also made the relation between individual differences and latencies evident: only in conversations with the experimenter were higher sociocognitive skills and lower social awareness associated with faster responses. Information flow and shared tempo were also influenced by familiarity: children adapted their response latencies to the predictability and tempo of their interlocutor's turn, but only when interacting with their caregivers and not the experimenter. These results highlight the need to construe turn-taking as a multicomponential construct that is shaped by individual differences, interpersonal dynamics, and the affordances of the context.
UNC Libraries · 2025-04-05
articleOpen accessLAY ABSTRACT: In the United States, Black autistic youth face elevated risk of negative outcomes during police interactions. Although the outcomes of these interactions are well-documented, less is known about Black autistic youths' experiences during police encounters, as the current literature has largely examined the experiences of autistic adults, mostly White American samples, and/or autistic youth abroad. This study utilizes qualitative methods to examine the perceptions and concerns of 43 Black caregivers (N = 43; 98% parents; 2% legal guardians; 93% mothers) of Black autistic children (mean age: 16.5; 79% male) regarding police interactions with their autistic children. Through phenomenological analysis, four dominant themes emerged: concerns regarding the <em>Quality of police officers' training</em>, children's <em>Autistic behaviors being inappropriately policed</em>, the explicit <em>Threat of harm and murder</em>, and the hope for <em>Mindful Policing</em>. These findings demonstrate that caregivers' perceptions of police behavior are inextricably linked to their concerns about the quality of police officers' training. This study highlights (1) the importance of including racially and ethnically diverse individuals in research exploring autistic individuals' police interactions, (2) the need for culturally responsive and neuro-affirming adaptations to existing policing interventions designed for autistic people, and (3) <em>the urgency</em> of integrating Black caregivers' concerns into law enforcement training efforts.
Autism · 2025-12-07
articleSenior authorTo address the dearth of literature on outcomes for autistic individuals with significant intellectual disability, researchers require validated measures to use in research. This study examined the psychometric properties of PROMIS quality-of-life caregiver-proxy scales included in the PROMIS Autism Battery–Lifespan among autistic children who are minimally verbal and with intellectual disability (MVID). We examined basic psychometric properties of the PROMIS caregiver-proxy scales and tested the scales for measurement invariance between groups of autistic children who are minimally verbal with intellectual disability and those without signficant intellectuatl disability ( N = 448). We also descriptively examined feedback from caregivers regarding the appropriateness of the questions to capture meaningful outcomes for their autistic children who are minimally verbal with intellectual disability. Results indicated that some PROMIS caregiver-proxy scales (Anger, Positive Affect, and Life Satisfaction) exhibited strong psychometric evidence and content validity, but many other scales either did not demonstrate measurement invariance between groups or included a high proportion of items endorsed by caregivers as not applicable for their minimally verbal autistic child. Our findings emphasize the need for continued work developing appropriate measures for capturing meaningful outcomes among minimally verbal autistic people with significant intellectual disability.
Evaluating More Granular Options for Socio‐Demographic Questions in Autism Research
Autism Research · 2025-04-21
articleOpen accessSenior authorCorrespondingWe evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of adding more detailed choices for race, ethnicity, sex, gender, and socio-economic status for a demographic survey used by families both within and outside a large learning health network, the Autism Care Network (ACNet). We updated our demographic survey using an iterative approach, incorporating qualitative and quantitative feedback from interested parties across the US and Canada. Pilot testing of the revised survey was conducted with families with and without autism served by two large academic pediatric tertiary care centers. Through purposive sampling, recruitment was enriched for families from ethnic, racial, or gender minority backgrounds. The updated demographic survey increased the number of response options for race and ethnicity, sex, gender, and language. 85 families within the ACNet and 242 families outside the ACNet provided feasibility and acceptability data. 41% of respondents were from nonWhite or multiple race groups. 99% of respondents rated the updated form same or better than the original. 91% of respondents rated the updated form as acceptable, while 97% rated the survey as feasible. Despite concerns about the burden on respondents, we found high rates of feasibility and acceptability of more granular response options in demographic surveys. Researchers can adapt this approach to make their own more granular demographic forms focused on the specific variables relevant to their study and local contexts. More granular demographic data can identify strengths and gaps in representation that could impact a study's generalizability.
Recent grants
Frequent coauthors
- 74 shared
Robert T. Schultz
University of Pennsylvania
- 50 shared
W. Spencer Guthrie
Brigham Young University
- 45 shared
John D. Herrington
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
- 39 shared
Brenna B. Maddox
- 38 shared
Kate Wallis
University of Pennsylvania
- 35 shared
Julia Parish‐Morris
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
- 35 shared
Amanda Bennett
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
- 29 shared
Benjamin E. Yerys
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Labs
Judith S. Miller LabPI
- Resume-aware match score
- Save to shortlist
- AI-drafted outreach
See your match with Judith S. Miller
PhdFit ranks faculty by your research interests, methods, and publications — grounded in their actual work, not templates.
- Free to start
- No credit card
- 30-second signup