Autism spectrum disorders include broad definitions of behavioral phenotypes and reflect the current consensus that the causes and clinical presentations of autism are highly heterogeneous. Although forging definitive links between genetic alterations and behavioral impairments is challenging, it is not insurmountable task. Translational endpoints, including behavioral outcomes, are essential for studying mechanisms of neurodevelopmental disorders and developing therapeutic treatment strategies. And while not all behaviors and phenotypes studied in the laboratory are robust, reliable, or clinically relevant, there are many that are prime and valuable for enabling translational experiments. Our proposed symposium will highlight four speakers whose research highlights robust and reliable behavioral and physiological outcome measures and innovative parameters that can be assessed in both humans and animals. Our speakers will discuss optimizing what behavioral data can tell us and what it cannot, and how to be cautious consumers of behavioral data. We will discuss how multiple domains of behavioral phenotypes and cross species studies could/should be embraced to improve translational efforts. We will also demonstrate how pairing behavior with a physiological marker can corroborate and expand translational research and how these innovative measures can facilitate studies and better predict clinical success for ASD and neurodevelopmental disorders.