The perspectives of Australian speech pathologists in providing evidence-based practices to children with autism

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

What is already known on the subject Constrained resources, especially lack of time, is a barrier to routine uptake of best available evidence in clinical services for children with autism. What this paper adds to existing knowledge In this study, the perception that speech pathologists lacked time to engage in EBP activities was linked with the speech pathologist's research skill and their beliefs about the benefits of engaging in EBP. Speech Pathologists reported using a range of information sources, as "evidence" but also reported feeling uneasy when using evidence of disputable, or unknown quality. Accessibility and relevance to their individual client were highly prioritised in selecting evidence. Clinical expertise was an essential skill for research translation. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Interventions which target professional beliefs and research translation capability are requisite for motivating speech pathologists to improve their use of EBP. Modelling of EBP use, individual reflective practice and collegial active listening to facilitate reflective practice, might be useful strategies which target beliefs and capability of individual speech pathologists; thereby changing their EBP use.