For decades, people from more than 180 countries have relied on our publications and resources to support their work on behalf of children and families. Our library includes more than 2,000 journal articles, policy briefs, assessment tools, learning modules, and multimedia to support multiple audiences at home and abroad.

Below, we've gathered some of our more recent autism-focused publications. For a comprehensive listing of autism-related publications by FPG scientists, implementation specialists, and technical assistance specialists, visit our publications landing page.

Autism intervention researchers often do not report the race and ethnicity of study participants. When data is reported, there is a lack of representation across historically minoritized racial and ethnic groups. These key findings were reported in, “Patterns in reporting and participant inclusion related to race and ethnicity in autism intervention literature: Data from a large-scale systematic review of evidence-based practices” published in the journal, Autism, in January 2022. The study was led by Jessica Steinbrenner, PhD, a Faculty Fellow at the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute. Underrepresenting participants from historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups contributes to systemic inequities in autism diagnoses and outcomes. With the knowledge that racial inequity has existed in autism research and continues to be a problem, the researchers sought to understand how disproportionate inclusion of historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups and data reporting might exacerbate long-standing inequities in the field.

The NCAEP Null Findings Summary was created as a companion document to the National Clearinghouse on Autism Evidence and Practice (NCAEP) systematic review article and report (see Hume et al., 2021; Steinbrenner et al., 2020; https://ncaep.fpg.unc.edu/). In that article and report, the authors provide supporting evidence for identified practices using studies with positive effects. They did not, however, describe practices for which studies demonstrated an absence of evidence or null effects. The objective of this document is to summarize the null findings discovered during the systematic review from 1990-2017.

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) III, Educational Interventions for Children and Youth with Autism: A 40-Year Perspective describes school-based and school-relevant interventions and instructional approaches for children and youth with autism that have been developed and employed during that time period. The article begins with a brief description of foundational research that provides a historical context. Research themes shaped by science, ethics, social policy, and the changes in the DSM provide an organization for describing the evolution of intervention and instructional practices over the four previous decades. The article concludes with a discussion of school-contextual variables that influence implementation and the promise of the “iSciences” for closing the research to practice gap in the future.

For many individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), postsecondary outcomes are poor. This may be due to insufficient academic supports, particularly regarding literacy skills, during high school. More information is needed about skill profiles so that we can better differentiate support for students with varying social, communication, cognitive, and academic proficiency levels. This study was designed to (a) identify unique literacy profiles of high school students with ASD, (b) assess profile stability over time, (c) identify predictors of profile membership, and (d) analyze stakeholder reports of required school support intensity. Read Stability of Literacy Profiles of Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Associations with Stakeholder Perceptions of Appropriate High School Support Needs to learn more.

Evidence-Based Practices for Children, Youth, and Young Adults With Autism: Third Generation Review is a systematic review that describes a set of practices that have evidence of positive effects with autistic children and youth. This is the third iteration of a review of the intervention literature, extending coverage to articles published between 1990 and 2017. A search initially yielded 31,779 articles, and the subsequent screening and evaluation process found 567 studies to include. Combined with the previous review, 972 articles were synthesized, from which the authors found 28 focused intervention practices that met the criteria for evidence-based practice (EBP). Former EBPs were recategorized and some manualized interventions were distinguished as meeting EBP criteria. The authors discuss implications for current practices and future research.

Screening tools for autism spectrum disorders serve a vital role in early identification of all children who may need evaluation and support. Recent studies suggest that traditional methods used in this field to translate such tools may be insufficient for maintaining linguistic, construct, or technical equivalence, resulting in screening tools that do not meet high psychometric standards in the new population. Read Rigorous Translation and Cultural Adaptation of an Autism Screening Tool: First Years Inventory as a Case Study to learn how the study implemented a rigorous translation and cultural adaptation process by translating the First Years Inventory v3.1 (Baranek et al. First year inventory (FYI) 3.1. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC, 2003) for a US-based Spanish-speaking population. A description of this process is provided with results from data collected during each phase. And the unique challenges that were identified and addressed are detailed for future translation teams.