Giacomo Vivanti, PhD
Division of Developmental Pediatrics, Professor, Joan and Jack Craig Chair in Autism Research
Email: giacomo.vivanti@dal.ca
Fax: 902-470-7271
Mailing Address:
Autism Research Centre
4th Floor Link, IWK Health Centre, Room #4016
PO Box 9700
Halifax, NS B3K 6R8
Research Topics:4th Floor Link, IWK Health Centre, Room #4016
PO Box 9700
Halifax, NS B3K 6R8
- Autism
- Neurodevelopmental Conditions
- Early Intervention
- Typical and Atypical Early Learning and Development
Education
- BA/BSc (University of Milan, Italy)
- MA/MSc (University of Milan, Italy)
- PhD (University of Siena, Italy)
- PDF (University of California, Davis)
Research interests
Professor Vivanti’s research focuses on autism and neurodevelopmental conditions, with an emphasis understanding and addressing the needs of autistic individuals through early intervention practices. His work is work is designed both to contributing to the scientific literature and to affecting clinical and educational practices as well as policy.
Selected publications
- Vivanti, G., Lombardo, M. V., Zitter, A., Boyd, B., Dissanayake, C., Dufek, S., ... & Watson, L. (2025). Proportion and profile of autistic children not acquiring spoken language despite receiving evidence-based early interventions. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 1-18.
- Vivanti, G., Algur, Y., Ryan, V., McClure, L. A., Fein, D., Stahmer, A. C., ... & Robins, D. L. (2025). The impact of using standardized autism screening on referral to specialist evaluation for young children on the autism spectrum: A cluster-randomized controlled trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 64(6), 686-698.
- Vivanti, G., Lee, W. L., Ventimiglia, J., Tao, S., Lyall, K., & Shea, L. L. (2025). Prevalence of dementia among US adults with autism spectrum disorder. JAMA network open, 8(1), e2453691.
- Paolizzi, E., Orsili, L., Talbott, M., Cavalli, G., Stahmer, A. C., Lee, N. R., ... & Vivanti, G. (2026). Social enhancement of associative learning in neurotypical, speaking autistic, and minimally speaking autistic preschoolers. Molecular autism.
- Vivanti, G. (2024). Autism early intervention–progress, steps backward, and the reconciliation of conflicting narratives. Current psychiatry reports, 26(12), 753-760.
Selected awards and honours
- Fellow, International Society for Autism Research
- Recipient, Autism without Borders Award, Autism Research for Europe (AIMS-2)