Early Intervention Research Group

The Early Intervention Research Group (EIRG) empowers caregivers and clinicians to support early communication development for children with developmental differences.

Our Mission

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Participate in a Study

Our individualized, evidence-based practices support better communication and understanding for children and caregivers.

Reduce the Wait (RTW)

The Reduce the Wait project is a federally funded research study that will provide autism evaluations to over 1,000 children enrolled in the Illinois Early Intervention program.

Sequencing Methods for Autism: A Randomized Trial (SMART)

This project examines how caregivers can learn social communication strategies, behavior regulation strategies or both sets of strategies to support autistic toddlers’ communication and behavior.

We have partnered with Dr. Morénike Giwa Onaiwu and an advisory board of 12 autistic adults and (autistic and allistic) caregivers of autistic children to create tools that researchers and the autistic/autism communities can use to co-design early childhood autism research that prioritizes the needs of autistic people and their families.

Learn More About Our Studies

What Participants are Saying

All I can say is thank you to this amazing team of therapists. This was life changing and for the first time in a while, I felt my child was seen for who he is all across the board. Please keep doing the amazing work you guys are doing and I know more families would benefit from this assessment and diagnostic evaluation.

Deaf/Hard of Hearing (DHH) Study Participant

I appreciated that after I was informed, the evaluators took a step back and asked how I was feeling about the diagnosis. The evaluators made a point of noting our child’s strengths, as well as the strengths of our relationship, which was highly validating. I was extremely satisfied with our experience with the study.

Reduce The Wait Participant

The evaluators were amazing. They were very understanding, listened well to my concerns, and were respectful and nice. Their presence made it easy to open up about my daughter and her development.

Deaf/Hard of Hearing (DHH) Study Participant

Who We Are

The EIRG includes scientists and clinicians who are dedicated to improving early development of infants and toddlers.

We activate change in early childhood development through robust partnerships with stakeholders. We recognize families and clinicians as experts. We prioritize risk-taking, efficiency, and accessibility in order to conduct rigorous and equitable research. Collectively, we create individualized, evidence-based solutions in service of influencing policy.

Meet Our Team

Support Our Mission

Donate to our research lab.

We are largely funded through research grants. However, research grants often include a lengthy application process and a short project period and a limited budget. Additionally, we are limited to writing grants that are likely to be funded, but not necessarily rewarded for answering research questions that are risky and challenge the status-quo.

We invite you to donate to our research lab so that we can conduct research studies that are outside of the box so that we can make real-world impact and change.

Donate to the EIRG