PAR Blog | Evaluate change in individuals with ASD

PAR-Blog_PDDBI_Tricare Focus_5292118547_11-14-23.jpg

Evaluate change in individuals with ASD

November 16, 2023

The newest additions to the PDD Behavior Inventory (PDDBI) product family are now available.

The PDDBI can better help you to document and evaluate change in individuals on the autism spectrum. The PDDBI is an informant-based rating scale that can be completed by parents and teachers to assess features of autism and responsiveness to intervention.

Unlike other measures for ASD, the PDDBI was developed to assess both problem behaviors as well as appropriate social, language, and learning/memory skills. It can be used in assessment, treatment planning, and monitoring. Two new reports and a manual supplement have just been released.

PDDBI supplement provides practical insights

The just-released PDDBI Professional Manual Supplement: Advanced Score, Multirater, and Progress Monitoring Interpretation digital supplement provides practical insight into the reasoning behind the development of the new reports as well as their application in practice.

This new supplement provides guidance for calculation and interpretation of parent–teacher rating comparisons and tracking changes in scores over time using Reliable Change Indices. In addition, it includes guidance for advanced interpretation of the PDDBI, including interpretation of individual scores and clusters and comparisons between parent and teacher ratings. Reliable change indices are provided in order to detect significant differences (a) between raters and (b) over time.

Enhanced and updated PDDBI reports

Updated and new reports offer clinicians additional insights to better document and evaluate change in individuals with ASD. The PDDBI Multirater and Progress Monitoring Reports are both available for no additional charge when you purchase and use a score report for each form you wish to compare.

The enhanced PDDBI Score Report provides a new interpretive guidance section, a revised look and feel with icons clearly indicating score ranges, and an optional items and responses section.
The new PDDBI Multirater Report allows you to select one parent rating and one teacher rating to get a detailed look at both sets of results, with significant differences clearly highlighted, both ratings plotted together on the profile, and an optional item and response section.
The new PDDBI Progress Monitoring Report allows you to compare scores from one rater for up to four administrations. Get a detailed look at progress or decline with significant differences clearly highlighted, all ratings plotted together on the profile, and an optional item and response section. Comparison tables are also included.

Using the PDDBI with TRICARE

If you are covered by TRICARE, use of the PDDBI is mandated under the Autism Care Demonstration (ACD) benefit. Under the ACD, applied behavior analysis (ABA) providers are authorized to render services for the core symptoms of ASD. The goal of ABA therapy is to minimize challenging behaviors and improve the quality of life for the individual and their caregivers.

Under this program, the PDDBI is used as a baseline outcome measure to help providers develop treatment plans and evaluate an individual’s change in behavior over time. The PDDBI will be readministered every six months.

If you are a clinician who accepts TRICARE, the PDDBI is mandated for use as part of initial assessment and every six months to monitor progress. Additional age-based outcome measures that evaluate parenting stress are also required under ACD (the Parenting Stress Index, Fourth Edition Short Form [PSI-4-SF] and the Stress Index for Parents of Adolescents [SIPA]) are also available from PAR. Learn more about the requirements for TRICARE reimbursement under ACD.