Translating Between Research and Practice in Serving Infants at Risk for ASD

In research studies, we are now able to identify many infants who are at risk for later diagnoses of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) as early as 12 months of age. The authors are part of a research team developing and testing a tool for early identification and also testing the efficacy of an early intervention for infants at risk for ASD. Challenges encountered in this research highlight some of the issues that speech-language pathologists and other professionals serving the infant/toddler population may face. This article uses our research team’s experiences to raise some of the ethical and practical concerns regarding translating from research to practice in early identification for this population, and the potential implications for early intervention policies and services.