Dr. Mastergeorge's research areas of expertise and interest in young children stem from her days as a Master's student at the University of Washington where she worked with very young children and their families –both typically developing as well as those with disabilities and atypical development in both dyadic and group settings. This area of interest was expanded as a doctoral student at UCLA where I worked on a longitudinal NIH study that followed families who had young children with ambiguous diagnoses of developmental delay. During that time, she spent three years traveling to families' homes observing and coding their everyday activities routines, and learning opportunities. Spending time with families in the context of their homes, and hearing their stories about the ways in which their beliefs about development were constructed and altered based on their child's developmental abilities, provided the groundwork for her interests in parent-mediated interventions. In addition, observing and studying parent-child interactions for both typical and atypically developing children (including developmental delay, autism, and fragile X syndrome) provided a context to understand the developmental trajectories necessary in prevention, early intervention, and understanding contexts that mitigate at-risk development.

Dr. Mastergeorge's research focuses on the following specific areas in both typical and atypical development of young children: (1) typical development in social attention and joint attention; (2) prevention and early intervention for young children with autism (including early indicators of autism and autism risk); (3) parent-mediated interventions and parent-child interaction; and (4) understanding ‘at-risk' development and resilience indicators and mediators of development. In addition, many of her research projects focus on partnering in communities, with and collaborations across disciplines to examine both biological and behavioral underpinnings of developmental trajectories.