Keeping up with the evidence base: Survey of behavior professionals about Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions.
Most BCBAs skip Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions even though a fresh meta-analysis says they boost language.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Whiteside et al. (2022) asked 901 behavior pros what they know about Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions.
These are play-based, kid-led ABA methods for autistic toddlers.
The team used an online quiz and rating scale.
What they found
Most people flunked the quiz.
Only one in four thought NDBI works well.
Even fewer said they would use it.
How this fits with other research
Han et al. (2025) just pooled 25 trials and found NDBI gives small-to-medium language gains.
So the science says “it helps,” but the survey says “we don’t know it.”
Schreck et al. (2016) saw the same gap: BCBAs often pick unproven tricks instead of ones with data.
Barton et al. (2019) showed kids get less than half of funded EIBI hours, proving the use gap is real at every step.
Why it matters
If you run early-intervention cases, this is a wake-up call.
You can close the gap in one supervision cycle: add a free NDBI module, model turn-taking in play, and track child initiations.
Your caseload keeps the same hours, but the teaching style now matches the 2025 meta-analysis.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Primary service providers for young children on the autism spectrum and developmentally delayed children use many strategies under the umbrella of applied behavior analysis therapy. The evidence supporting interventions for children on the autism spectrum has changed last decade, and powerful research supports the relative effectiveness of Naturalistic Developmental Behavior Interventions, yet a few professionals serving young children on the autism spectrum receive training in this category of interventions. Board Certified Behavior Analysts and related professionals are the primary service providers for this population. The purpose of this survey study is to describe and understand the knowledge and beliefs that Behavior Analyst Certification Board certificants have around Naturalistic Developmental Behavior Interventions. The survey was completed by 901 respondents. Respondents indicated, on average, little to no knowledge of Naturalistic Developmental Behavior Intervention practices and few believe that these practices are effective or appropriate for the field. Recommendations include increasing training opportunities for related professionals, and changing certification requirements to match the current evidence.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2022 · doi:10.1177/13623613211035233