Aritz Aranbarri, PhD, is a clinical child neuropsychologist and clinical researcher specialized in early autism neurodevelopment, focusing on early detection, diagnosis, and intervention. He is based at Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona Children’s Hospital, where he works within the specialized autism unit (UnimTEA), a government-recognized high-specialization autism unit in Catalonia, bridging clinical practice and translational research.
Dr. Aranbarri completed his PhD in early neurodevelopment and environmental epidemiology (with highest honors) and received specialized postdoctoral training in autism research at the UC Davis MIND Institute (University of California, Davis), where he contributed to research on early autism intervention using the
Community-Early Start Denver Model (C-ESDM)
under the mentorship of Dr. Aubyn Stahmer. He is also a clinically trained and certified ESDM therapist.
His work focuses on early autism identification, clinical neurodevelopmental characterization, and caregiver-mediated intervention, with an emphasis on facilitating the transfer of evidence-based practices into real-world clinical and community settings. He is Principal Investigator of the CARE C-ESDM clinical trial—the first C-ESDM trial in Spain—and has co-led the Spanish adaptation and dissemination of the digital caregiver training platform
Help Is in Your Hands.
He maintains an active clinical role in early autism diagnosis and provides specialized training for community and pediatric teams. He is an official international trainer of the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development—a gold-standard tool for early neurodevelopmental assessment—and a university lecturer in postgraduate programs in autism and early neurodevelopment.