Brynna Heflin

Brynna Heflin is a doctoral student in the Clinical Science Program in Child and Adolescent Psychology. Under the mentorship of Dr. Daniel Bagner, she is working to develop a better understanding of the bidirectional relations between parental symptomatology and early childhood behavior outcomes within cultural contexts. Additionally, she is interested in the impact of parental symptomatology and acculturative factors on pediatric outcomes, such as early childhood obesity.

Research Areas

Brynna Heflin is a doctoral student in the Clinical Science Program in Child and Adolescent Psychology. Under the mentorship of Dr. Daniel Bagner, she is working to develop a better understanding of the bidirectional relations between parental symptomatology and early childhood behavior outcomes within cultural contexts. Additionally, she is interested in the impact of parental symptomatology on pediatric outcomes, such as early childhood obesity.

Publications

Heymann, P., *Heflin, B. H.,* & Bagner, D. M. (2021). Effect of therapist coaching statements

on parenting skills in a brief parenting intervention for infants. Behavior Modification,

1-15. DOI: 10.1177/0145445520988140

*Heflin, B. H.,* Comer, J. S., & Bagner,  D. M. (2020). Predicting BMI in Young Children with Developmental Delay and Externalizing Problems: Links with Caregiver Depressive Symptoms and Acculturation. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 45(9): 1084-1092. DOI: 10.1093/jpepsy/jsaa074

*Heflin, B. H.,* Heymann, P., Coxe, S., & Bagner, D. M. (2020). Impact of Parenting Intervention on Observed Aggressive Behaviors in At-Risk Infants. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 29(8): 2234-2245. DOI: 10.1007/s10826-020-01744-y

Heymann, P., *Heflin, B. H.,* Baralt, M., & Bagner, D. M. (2020). Infant-Directed Language Following a Brief Behavioral Parenting Intervention: The Importance of Language Quality. Infant Behavior and Development, 58, 101419. DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2019.101419

Heymann, P., *Heflin, B. H.,* & Bagner, D. M. (2020). “Parent Child Interaction Therapy: Theory and Research to Practice.” Selected Topics in Child and Adolescent Mental Health. IBSN 978-1-78985-270-7. DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.91194

Griffith, S. F., Hagan, M. B., Heymann, P., *Heflin, B. H.,* & Bagner, D. M. (2020). Apps as learning tools: A systematic review. Pediatrics, 145(1). DOI: 10.1542/peds.2019-1579

Failla, M. D., Bryant, L., *Heflin, B. H.,* Mash, L., Schauder, K., Davis, S., Gerdes, M., Weitlauf, A., Rogers, B., & Cascio, C. (2020). Neural correlates of cardiac interoceptive accuracy across development: Implications for social symptoms in Autism Spectrum Disorders. Autism Research. DOI: 10.1101/63043

Williams, Z. J., Failla, M. D., Davis, S. L., *Heflin, B. H.,* Okintondo, C. D., Moore, D. L., & Cascio, C J. (2019). Thermal Perceptual Thresholds are Typical in Autism Spectrum Disorder but Strongly Related to Intra-Individual Response Variability. Scientific Reports, 9: 1-14. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-49103-2

Failla, M., Peters, B., Karbasforoushan, H., Foss-Feig, J., Schauder, K., *Heflin, B. H*, & Cascio, C. (2017). Intra-insular connectivity and somatosensory responsiveness in young children with ASD. Molecular Autism, 8(25).

Presentations

Quinde, J., *Heflin, B. H.,* Mash, L. E., & Cascio, C. J. Multifaceted Empathy Differences in Autism: Negative but not positive emotion recognition impairment. Poster Presented at International Society for Autism Research (INSAR), Seattle, WA, United States, May 2020.

Zoltowski, A. R., Failla, M. D., Okitondo, C., Weitlauf, A., Mash, L. E., Davis, S., *Heflin, B. H.,* Rogers, B., & Cascio, C. J. Intrinsic network connectivity with interoceptive sensory regions correlates with autism severity. Poster Presented at International Society for Autism Research (INSAR), Seattle, WA, United States, May, 2020. Williams, Z. J., Feldman, J. I., Dunham, K., Suzman, E., Liu, Y., Davis, S. L., Mash, L. E.,

*Heflin, B. H.,* Schauder, K. B., Foss-Feig, J. H., Cascio, C. J., & Woynaroski, T. G. The measurement and clinical correlates of decreased sound tolerance (hyperacusis) in autism spectrum disorder. Poster Presented at Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Theory in Intellectual Disabilities, San Diego, CA, United States, April, 2020.

Failla, M., Bryant, L., *Heflin, B. H*, Mash, L., Schauder, K., Davis, S., Weitlauf, A., Rogers, B., & Cascio, C. (May, 2019). Developmental differences in neural responses to an interoception task: implications for autism symptoms. Presentation on panel for interoception at the International Society for Autism Research, Montreal, Canada

Williams, Z., Davis, S., Okitondo, C., Mash, L.M., *Heflin, B. H.,* Weitlauf, A., & Cascio, C. (May, 2019). Thermal Detection Thresholds are not Elevated in Children and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Poster presented at the International Society for Autism Research, Montreal, Canada.

Zoltowski, A., Davis, S., Failla, M., Mash, L., *Heflin B. H,* Schauder, K., & Cascio, C. (May, 2019). Effects of sensory distractors on interoceptive processing in ASD. Poster Presented at the International Society for Autism Research, Montreal, Canada.

*Heflin, B. H.* and Magariño, L. (November, 2018). Understanding Early Child Development. Presentation in the Parenting Workshop Series at the Center for Children and Families (CCF) at Florida International University, Miami, FL.

*Heflin, B. H.,* Heymann, P., Martinez Pedraza, F., & Bagner, D.M. (October, 2018). Impact of Parenting Intervention on Observed Aggressive Behaviors in Infants at-risk for Disruptive Behavioral Disorders. Poster presented at the National Conference in Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Kansas City, KS.

Bagner, D.M., *Heflin, B. H.,* & Heymann, P. (June, 2018). Impact of a Brief and Home-Based Intervention on Aggressive Behaviors in High-Risk Infants. Presentation at Biennial World Meeting of the International Society for Research on Aggression, Paris, France.

Heymann, P., *Heflin, B. H.,* & Bagner, D.M. (February, 2018). The Role of Cumulative Risk on Intervention Outcomes for Infants at-risk for Behavioral Disorders. Poster presented at the Miami International Child & Adolescent Mental Health Conference (MICAMH), Miami, FL. Santapuram, P., Feldman, J. I., Bowman, S., *Heflin, B. H.*, Augustine, A., Golden, A., Keceli

Kaysili, B., Suzman, E., Broderick, N., Cascio, C., J. & Woynaroski, T. G. (April, 2018). Eye gaze patterns correlate with vocal complexity and language development in infants at high- and low risk for autism spectrum disorder. Poster submitted for presentation at the annual Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Theory in Intellectual Disabilities, San Diego, CA.

Failla, M., Bryant, L., *Heflin, B. H.,* Tracy, J., Rogers, B., & Cascio, C. (June, 2017) Neural correlates of interoception in autism spectrum disorder. Poster presented at the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) Conference, Vancouver, Canada. 

*Heflin, B. H.* Tracy, J., Mash, L., Willer, H., Newsome, C., & Cascio, C. (May, 2017). Increased tendency for proximal proprioceptive errors in limb bisection for individuals with autism spectrum disorder is not mitigated by tool use. Poster presented at International Multisensory Research Forum (IMRF) Conference, Nashville, TN.

Santapuram, P., Morgan, A., Bowman, S., *Heflin, B. H.* Augustine, A., Feldman, J., & Wynoroski, T. (May, 2017) Looking predicts vocal complexity and language development in infants at risk for ASD. Poster presented at International Multisensory Research Forum (IMRF) Conference, Nashville, TN.

*Heflin, B. H.,* Hussain, S. & Hurd, N. (April, 2016). Natural mentoring relationships among underrepresented college students: An examination of predictors and associated outcomes.  Poster session presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, Baltimore, MD.

Education

• MS, Clinical Science, Florida International University, 2019
  BA, Psychology and Spanish, University of Virginia, 2015