Identifying and measuring the common elements of naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions for autism spectrum disorder: Development of the NDBI-Fi
An eight-item checklist gives BCBAs a quick, reliable snapshot of caregiver naturalistic technique.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Frost et al. (2020) built a short checklist for naturalistic ABA. They call it the NDBI-Fi.
The tool has eight items. Each item marks a core move parents make during play.
The team tested if different raters would score the same clip the same way.
What they found
Raters agreed. The little checklist gave steady scores across people and sessions.
Early numbers show the tool is both reliable and valid for caregiver coaching.
How this fits with other research
Gevarter et al. (2025) extends this work. They used coached NDBI with Hispanic preschoolers and saw very large communication gains. Their study shows the same parent moves the NDBI-Fi tracks can work in two languages.
Klein et al. (2021) adds video feedback to the same coaching model. Both groups of parents improved, proving the basic NDBI moves stay effective even when you add cameras.
Pacia et al. (2022) built a different fidelity tool called PAIRS. PAIRS is broader; NDBI-Fi is laser-focused on naturalistic techniques. Use PAIRS to guide the whole parent meeting, then grab NDBI-Fi to score the exact moments of shared play.
Why it matters
You now have a fast, free way to count caregiver technique. Run a five-minute play clip, check eight boxes, and see if parents are hitting the naturalistic sweet spots. Pair it with video feedback or bilingual coaching and you can track growth across languages and sessions without long protocols.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBIs) for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) share key elements (Schreibman et al., 2015). However, the extent of similarity and overlap in techniques among NDBI models has not been quantified, and there is no standardized measure for assessing implementation of their common elements. This paper presents a multi-stage process which began with the development of a taxonomy of elements of NDBIs. Next, intervention experts identified the common elements of NDBIs using quantitative methods. An observational rating scheme of those common elements, the 8-item NDBI-Fi, was developed. Finally, preliminary analyses of the reliability and validity of the NDBI-Fi were conducted using archival data from randomized controlled trials of caregiver-implemented NDBIs, including 87 post-intervention caregiver-child interaction videos from 5 sites, as well as 29 pre-post video pairs from 2 sites. Evaluation of the 8-item NDBI-Fi measure revealed promising psychometric properties, including evidence supporting adequate reliability, sensitivity to change, as well as concurrent, convergent, and discriminant validity. Results lend support to the utility of the NDBI-Fi as a measure of caregiver implementation of common elements across NDBI models. With additional validation, this unique measure has the potential to advance intervention science in ASD by providing a tool which cuts across a class of evidence-based interventions.
Autism, 2020 · doi:10.1177/1362361320944011