Closing the Research-to-Practice Gap in Autism: A Professional Practice Intervention Pilot Study for Increasing Use of Evidence-Based Practice.

Purpose: Implementation science is a field aimed at improving uptake of research into practice. Behavior change techniques are procedures aimed at changing behavior. Clinical speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have reported barriers to translating research into pediatric autism communication services. This study piloted an intervention that integrated implementation science and behavior change techniques to improve evidence-based practice (EBP) use in SLP pediatric autism communication services. The aim was to design and evaluate a professional practice intervention to improve EBP use by pediatric autism SLPs working in Australia.

Method: This pilot study used participatory action research methods. It recruited participants (N = 27) to small online communities of practice (CoPs), where participants chose an individualized EBP professional practice goal, developed an action plan, and presented the outcome of their learning to their CoP. Convergent mixed-methods analysis was used to analyze the effectiveness of the intervention, and explanatory qualitative methods were used to analyze the mechanism for its effectiveness.

Results: Participants' opportunity and capability for EBP use were significantly improved as a result of the intervention. Quantitative results indicated sustainment but not further improvements in EBP in the 3 months following intervention. Building participant research capacity through experiential learning positively influenced sustainability and scalability of EBP use. The intervention was scaled to a novel context, without direct researcher involvement, and was shown to be effective in this new workplace setting.

Conclusion: A coproduced online CoP is a model that was shown to improve SLP EBP use and should be considered for future EBP research translation projects.

Supplemental material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.29613596.