Measuring Parent Strategy Use in Early Interventions: Reliability and Validity of the NDBI-Fi Across Strategy Types
The NDBI-Fi macro-code gives you micro-level fidelity data in half the coding time—use it after intervention starts, but refine pre-intervention versions.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Sone et al. (2021) tested the NDBI-Fi macro-code. It is a short way to score how well parents use naturalistic ABA strategies.
They watched videos of parents playing with their preschoolers with autism. Two coders scored the same videos to check reliability.
They also looked at whether scores went up after parents got coaching. This shows if the tool can catch real change.
What they found
The macro-code scores matched well between coders. High reliability means you can trust the numbers.
Scores rose after coaching, so the tool senses improvement. It works best after training starts, not before.
How this fits with other research
Frazier et al. (2025) also built reliable change rules, but for the NET not fidelity. Both papers give cut-offs you can use in session.
Kaplan-Kahn et al. (2026) fixed the parent-stress survey for the same preschool group. Together these studies sharpen the tools you use with parents.
Cicchetti et al. (2014) showed ADI-R items can be reliable too. The theme: check your tool before you trust the data.
Why it matters
You can swap long micro-coding for the NDBI-Fi macro-code and still get solid fidelity numbers. Use it after coaching starts to see if parents really changed, but do not trust baseline scores for big decisions. Pair it with the revised PSI-SF if you track parent stress. In short, you get quick, trustworthy parent fidelity data without hours of coding.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Code the next parent coaching video with the NDBI-Fi macro-code and compare post-session scores to last week
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Children with autism spectrum disorder benefit from early, intensive interventions to improve social communication, and parent-implemented interventions are a feasible, family-centered way to increase treatment dosage. The success of such interventions is dependent on a parent’s ability to implement the strategies with fidelity. However, measurement of parent strategy use varies across studies. Most studies use one of two types of observational coding measures (macro and micro-coding). Macro-codes are known for being efficient while micro-codes are known for being precise. The present study evaluates the reliability and validity of the NDBI-Fi, a macro-code, compared to a micro-code. Parent-child interaction videos for 177 participants were used to compare these measures. Results demonstrated that the NDBI-Fi had strong interrater reliability. It also had strong convergent validity with the micro-code after intervention. In addition, the NDBI-Fi was sensitive to change, and it demonstrated precision comparable to the micro-code. Furthermore, a novel scoring procedure detected differences in parents who learned different intervention strategy types. However, the NDBI-Fi did not demonstrate strong validity before intervention, particularly when measuring responsive intervention strategies. Taken together, findings support the use of the NDBI-Fi as an outcome measure, and future work should focus on continued development of valid pre-intervention macro-codes.
Autism, 2021 · doi:10.1177/13623613211015003