No abstract

Background: Bridging the research-practice gap in autism communication services is an identified priority for improving services. Limited research has investigated the views of practitioners regarding this research-practice gap.Investigation of the barriers experienced and facilitators used in clinical practice may assist to identify scalable and sustainable strategies to increase use of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in the delivery of communication services to children with autism.Aims: To elucidate how Australian speech pathologists engage with external evidence and how communication outcomes are measured to demonstrate the effectiveness of service provision to children with autism.Methods & Procedures: A total of 15 Australian speech pathologists, with experience ranging from less than 1 to more than 16 years, participated in three focus groups. Data from focus groups were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis within an interpretive phenomenological paradigm. Outcomes & Results: Seven themes were identified. Participants reported on the diversity of individuals with autism, their experiences of resource constraints, seeking collegial advice and accessing a diverse range of evidence sources, the role of clinical expertise in translating evidence to practice, the barriers experienced in outcome measurement and use of stakeholders to facilitate data collection to demonstrate outcomes. Conclusions & Implications: Individual practitioner skill and beliefs are facilitators to translating research to practice. Interventions to improve clinician use of EBP should address the skill and belief barriers, aiming to increase a clinician's EBP self-efficacy and increasing their expectation that investing in EBP activities will result in improved services for children with autism. Modelling and reflective practice are two strategies that may have an application as interventions to improve EBP use in clinical practice.