Assessment & Research

Validation of the Revised Behavior Summarized Evaluation Scale.

Barthélémy et al. (1997) · Journal of autism and developmental disorders 1997
★ The Verdict

The 29-item BSE-R gives reliable numbers on autism behaviors the other big scales miss.

✓ Read this if BCBAs who track change in kids with autism or developmental delay across clinic or school sessions.
✗ Skip if Clinicians who only need repetitive-behavior data and already use the RBS-R.

01Research in Context

01

What this study did

The team checked if the new 29-item BSE-R scale really works. They gave the form to parents and teachers of the kids with autism or delays. Then they ran the numbers to see if scores stayed steady and matched what clinicians saw.

02

What they found

The scale held up. Internal consistency was 0.87, and test-retest stayed above 0.80. New items for eye gaze, mood shifts, and odd sounds fit well. Total scores tracked clinician ratings better than the old 19-item version.

03

How this fits with other research

Rojahn et al. (2012) later trimmed the 52-item BPI-01 down to 30 items and kept the same power. Their BPI-S now supersedes the long form when you need speed.

Kleinert et al. (2007) added two more tools to the shelf. They showed the RBS-R, ABC, and BPI-01 work best as a trio. The BSE-R fills the gap they left by adding non-verbal and emotion items.

Rojahn et al. (2012) also tested the SRS in a clinic and found it over-calls autism. The BSE-R avoids that trap by sticking to behavior counts, not diagnosis risk.

04

Why it matters

You now have a quick, free scale that captures gestures, mood, and sensory quirks the BPI and RBS-R skip. Use it at intake and every six months to show parents clear numbers as therapy moves forward.

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Print the BSE-R, circle the 6 new non-verbal items, and add them to your next parent update.

02At a glance

Intervention
not applicable
Design
other
Population
autism spectrum disorder, developmental delay
Finding
positive

03Original abstract

The Behavioral Summarized Evaluation scale (BSE), previously published and validated, was developed for the evaluation for the autistic behavior in developmentally disorder children. A revised version of this scale, the Revised Behavior Summarized Evaluation Scale (BSE-R) completed the 20-item BSE scale with the most relevant items extracted from a similar evaluation carried out with very young children. Thus 9 items were added to the original scale concerning nonverbal communication, emotional, and perception areas. This paper reports the reliability and validity studies of this new scale. In addition to confirming the previously published findings concerning the first version of the BSE, new items were extracted from the BSE-R content validity study. They involve fundamental functions such as intention and imitation which open new perspectives for a physiopathological approach to developmental disorders. The BSE-R is a useful tool for progressive recording of the evolution of patients both treated over long periods and included in short-term controlled therapeutic studies.

Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 1997 · doi:10.1023/a:1025887723360