Robins is director and professor at the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute, where she also leads the Research Program in Early Detection and Intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Much of her work has centered around developing, validating and refining a widely used screening tool for ASD, the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers. The original M-CHAT paper has been cited more than 1,600 times, and the validation of the recent revision, M-CHAT-R with Follow-Up (M-CHAT-R/F), demonstrated that the 2-stage screening questionnaire detects many cases of autism, and children in the study were diagnosed about two years younger than the national median, which improves access to ASD-specific early intervention.