The PDD Behavior Inventory: a rating scale for assessing response to intervention in children with pervasive developmental disorder.
The PDDBI is a quick parent-teacher scale that reliably tracks both gains and problem behaviors in preschoolers with PDD.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team built a new rating scale called the PDDBI. Parents and teachers fill it out.
They tested the preschoolers with PDD. They checked if the scores stayed the same when different adults rated the same child.
They also looked at whether the scale really measures two things: helpful daily skills and problem behaviors.
What they found
The scale held together. Internal consistency was high, meaning each item fits its topic.
Two adults rating the same child gave similar scores for adaptive skills. The scale tracked what it claimed to track.
How this fits with other research
Wilder et al. (2020) also gave us a quick checklist, but for staff performance. Both papers show that short informant tools can guide next steps.
Cairney et al. (2011) warn that rare problems need special stats. PDD is not rare, so the PDDBI’s regular reliability numbers are fine.
Peng et al. (2026) meta-analysis shows exercise helps kids with DCD. You could use the PDDBI to measure similar gains in kids with PDD after motor or play interventions.
Why it matters
You now have a 20-minute caregiver form that gives a clear before-and-after score. Use it at intake, then every 12 weeks. If adaptive scores rise and problem scores fall, you have simple numbers for parents and funders. No extra clinic time, just mail the form.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The PDD Behavior Inventory (PDDBI) is a rating scale filled out by caregivers or teachers that was designed to assess children having a Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD; autism, Asperger disorder, PDD-NOS, or childhood disintegrative disorder). Both adaptive and maladaptive behaviors are assessed in the scale, making it useful for treatment studies in which decreases in maladaptive behaviors and improvements in adaptive social and language skills relevant to PDD are expected. The adaptive behaviors assessed include core features of the disorder such as joint attention skills, pretend play, and referential gesture. The maladaptive behaviors sample a wide variety of behaviors observed in both lower- and higher-functioning individuals and include stereotyped behaviors, fears, aggression, social interaction deficits, and aberrant language. The inventory was found to have a high degree of internal consistency. Inter-rater reliability was better for adaptive behaviors than for maladaptive behaviors. Factor analyses confirmed the structure of the PDDBI and indicated good construct validity. In a subsample of children between 3 and 6 years of age, raw scores for adaptive behaviors increased with age in the parent and teacher versions, as did measures of social pragmatic problems. It was concluded that the PDDBI is both reliable and valid and is useful in providing information not typically available in most instruments used to assess children with PDD.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2003 · doi:10.1023/a:1022226403878