Wendy Stone, Ph.D.
Professor
Advising:
Not accepting new graduate students in 2025-2026.
Areas:
Child Clinical
Interests: Expediting access to early identification and specialized intervention for toddlers with ASD
Links:
Research
A substantial body of work has demonstrated the importance of specialized early intervention for optimizing outcomes for young children with ASD. However the availability of, and access to, ASD-specialized services is often limited within community practice settings. The current work in our lab focuses on translating evidence-based practices for early ASD screening and intervention to primary care and early intervention settings, with a focus on underserved communities.
Education
University of Miami (1981)
- April 5, 2023 Wendy Stone receives 2023 ITHS Pilot Award
- March 7, 2022 Wendy Stone and Shana Attar receive grant from UW Population Health Initiative to develop autism screening tools for toddlers in diverse settings
- May 11, 2020 Congratulations to Wendy Stone, who just received a new 5-year grant from NIMH!
- August 28, 2019 Congratulations to Wendy Stone, who was awarded a 4 year research grant by the US Department of Defense.
- October 13, 2017 Parent Map interviewed Wendy Stone about her creation of Julia, the child with autism, on Sesame Street.
- September 29, 2017 Congratulations to Wendy stone, who received a 3 year, $900,000 grant from the US Health Resources and Services Administration for the purpose of increasing access to early autism screening and intervention for toddlers from Hispanic and low income families in King County.
- April 12, 2017 Watch Wendy Stone get interviewed by King 5 News about her role in developing their new Sesame Street character, Julia, a girl with autism.
- September 27, 2016 Wendy Stone’s research, on baby teeth and how they may tell if prenatal exposure to chemicals increases the risk of developing autism, made it into the UW Today.
- September 27, 2016 Congratulations to Matt Enkema and Frank Schwebel (both mentored by Mary Larimer), as well as Sarah Edmunds (who is mentored by Wendy Stone) who recently received NRSA funding.
- April 27, 2016 KCTS 9 just did a segment about Sesame Street’s autism initiative and development of the autistic character Julia. Wendy Stone was one of the primary consultants for the creation of Julia.
- December 16, 2015 Wendy Stone was just interviewed by Colleen O’Brien, on Kiro Radio, about Santaphobia. Read or listen to that story here:
- November 18, 2015 Wendy Stone was recently interviewed by KUOW’s Jeannie Yandell for a segment on "The Record" about her work with Sesame Street’s new "See Amazing in All Children" initiative. Among the questions discussed was why Sesame Street created Julia, a child with ASD, as a storybook character rather than a Muppet, and why they chose a female character instead of a male.
- June 5, 2015 Sarah Edmunds’ poster was mentioned in an SFARI article about autism for "baby sibs." Sarah works in Wendy Stone’s lab.
- April 6, 2015 Wendy Stone continues to remind us that early intervention equals better outcomes.
- April 2, 2015 Wendy Stone is developing tools to screen even earlier for Autism. Early intervention leads to better outcomes.
- February 11, 2015 I love the tenacious Nancy Drew style sleuthing Wendy Stone continues to do in autism. I’m not the only one.
- January 28, 2015 Wendy Stone and the READi Lab continue to champion early identification and treatment of autism.
- September 16, 2014 Wendy Stone is the recipient a NIMH grant for A Screen-Refer-Treat (SRT) Model to Promote Earlier Access to ASD Intervention.
- July 9, 2014 Congratulations to Professor Wendy Stone, who received a new 5 year ($4 million) grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to improve services for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
- March 26, 2014 Wendy Stone, as well as Professors Paul Yoder and Zachary Warren of Vanderbilt University, received a $2.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute for Deafness and Other Communication Disorders to study communication interventions for younger siblings of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
- March 26, 2014 Wendy Stone was quoted in a recent article by SFARI titled Repetitive Behavior in Toddlers May Signal Autism.
- March 19, 2014 The Daily wrote an article about Wendy Stone and her research on autism titled Making Contact.
- March 19, 2014 Wendy Stone was quoted in an article by the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative titled Streamlined Autism Screen Speeds up Diagnosis.
- March 19, 2014 King 5.com Children's Healthlink ran a piece about Wendy Stone's research on autism.
- November 12, 2013 Professor Wendy Stone was quoted in this recent article about the possibility that autism may be visible as early as the first month of life.
- October 11, 2012 Wendy Stone was quoted in the APA Monitor this month (page 59) in an article titled Catching Autism Earlier.
- April 23, 2012 Wendy Stone was interviewed by KUOW’s Weekday Program on April 17 in recognition of the National Autism Awareness Month.
- January 30, 2012 Wendy Stone, Professor, Psychology and Autism Center Director, was interviewed January 27 on KUOW.
- August 23, 2011 Wendy Stone is a co-author of a study that found that younger siblings of children with autism have a one in five chance of autism diagnosis.
- July 26, 2011 Peter Kahn and Wendy Stone were interviewed by National Geographic article on social robots.
- April 4, 2011 Wendy Stone is co-author of a study that indicates that the level of interest toddlers with early signs of autism show in toys may predict how well they will respond to a parent-guided treatment program.
- October 12, 2010 Wendy Stone was quoted in an msnbc article. "Autism linked to jaundice in newborns, study finds,"
- Berger, N. Wainer, A., Kuhn, J., Bearss, K., Attar, S., Carter, A., Ibanez, V., Ingersoll, B., Neiderman, H., Scott, S., & Stone, W.L. (advance online publication). Characterizing available tools for synchronous telehealth assessment of toddlers with suspected Autism Spectrum Disorder: A brief report. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-04911-2.
- Coulter, K.L., Barton, M.L., Robins, D.L., Stone, W.L., & Fein, D.A. (advance online publication). DSM-5 symptom expression in toddlers. Autism. DOI: 10.117713623613211000160.
- Ibanez, L.V., Scott, S., & Stone, W.L. (2021). The implementation of Reciprocal Imitation Training in a Part C early intervention setting: A stepped-wedge pragmatic trial. Autism Research, 14, 1777-1788. DOI: 10.1002/aur.2522.
- Steinman, K.J.*, Stone, W.L.*, Ibanez, L.V., & Attar, S.M. *These authors made equal contributions to this work. (advance online publication). Reducing barriers to early autism screening in community primary care: A pragmatic trial using web-based screening. Academic Pediatrics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2021.04.017.
- Stone, W.L., Ibanez, L.V., Carpentier, P., Posner, E., Bravo, A., Frederick, L., Locke, J. (2021). Early intervention providers’ perspectives about working with families of toddlers with suspected ASD: A qualitative study. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 51, 814-826. PMID:31845130. DOI:10.1007/s10803-019-04337-x.
- Yoder, P.J., Stone, W.L., & Edmunds, S.R. (2021). Parent utilization of ImPACT intervention strategies is a mediator of proximal then distal social-communication outcomes in infant siblings of children with ASD. Autism, 25, 44-57. PMID: 32811160. DOI:10.1177/1362361320946883.
- Locke, J.*, Ibanez, L.V.*, Posner, E., Frederick, L., Carpentier, P., & Stone, W.L. (2020). Parent perceptions about communicating with providers regarding their early autism concerns. Pediatrics, Apr;145(Suppl 1):S72-S80. PMID: 32238533. DOI:10.1542/peds.2019-1895J *These authors made equal contributions to this work.
- DesChamps,T.D., Ibanez, L.V., Edmunds, S.R., Dick, C.C., & Stone, W.L. (2020). Parenting stress in caregivers of young children with ASD concerns prior to a formal diagnosis. Autism Research, 13, 82-92. PMID: 31593362. DOI: 10.1002/aur.2213.
- Ibanez, L.V., Kobak, K., Swanson, A.R., Wallace, L., Warren, Z., & Stone, W.L. (2018). Enhancing interactions during daily routines: A randomized control trial of a web-based tutorial for parents of young children with ASD. Autism Research, 11, 667-678. PMID: 29316336. DOI:10.1002/aur.1919.
- Ibanez, L.V., Vander Stoep, A., Myers, K., Zhou, C., Dorsey, S., Steinman, K., & Stone, W.L. (2019). Promoting early autism detection and intervention in underserved communities: Study protocol for a pragmatic trial using a stepped-wedge design. BMC Psychiatry, 19:169. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-019-2150-3.