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. 2020 Nov;24(8):2285-2297.
doi: 10.1177/1362361320944011. Epub 2020 Jul 30.

Identifying and measuring the common elements of naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions for autism spectrum disorder: Development of the NDBI-Fi

Kyle M Frost  1 , Jessica Brian  2 , Grace W Gengoux  3 , Antonio Hardan  3 , Sarah R Rieth  4 , Aubyn Stahmer  5 , Brooke Ingersoll  1
Affiliations

Identifying and measuring the common elements of naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions for autism spectrum disorder: Development of the NDBI-Fi

Kyle M Frost et al. Autism. 2020 Nov.

Abstract

Naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions for young children with autism spectrum disorder share key elements. However, the extent of similarity between programs within this class of evidence-based interventions is unknown. There is also currently no tool that can be used to measure the implementation of their common elements. This article presents a multi-stage process which began with defining all intervention elements of naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions. Next, intervention experts identified the common elements of naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions using a survey. An observational rating scheme of those common elements, the eight-item NDBI-Fi, was developed. We evaluated the quality of the NDBI-Fi using videos from completed trials of caregiver-implemented naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions. Results showed that the NDBI-Fi measure has promise; it was sensitive to change, related to other similar measures, and demonstrated adequate agreement between raters. This unique measure has the potential to advance intervention science in autism spectrum disorder by providing a tool to measure the implementation of common elements across naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention models. Given that naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions have numerous shared strategies, this may ease clinicians' uncertainty about choosing the "right" intervention package. It also suggests that there may not be a need for extensive training in more than one naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention. Future research should determine whether these common elements are part of other treatment approaches to better understand the quality of services children and families receive as part of usual care.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorders; common elements; interventions—psychosocial/behavioral; measure development.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interest: Authors K.M.F., J.B., G.W.G., A.H., S.R.R., and A.S have no conflicts of interest to declare. Author B.I. receives royalties from the sale of one of the manuals used in the research. Royalties are donated to the research.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Method Flowchart
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Frequency distribution for the NDBI-Fi average rating for treatment cases and control cases.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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