Effectiveness of Caregiver-involved Group-based NDBIs Intervention for Autistic Preschoolers

A comprehensive measure of cognitive functioning for infants and preschool children from birth to 68 months, consisting of five subscales: gross motor, visual reception, fine motor, receptive language, and expressive language. The maximum raw score is 50 and will be transformed into T score based on the child's age, which can then be used to determine the percentile rank and scale age equivalent.

A play-based observational measure assessing communication, motor function, sociability, and problem solving in toddlers. In this study, we will use the subscale sociability (Early social indicator). The ESI lasts for 6-minutes while key communication skills and social skills will be counted as number, the rate of key skills (per-minute) will be generated and used for analysis.

It is a widely used and well validated measurement for assessing adaptive behaviors in individuals, rated by caregivers and teachers. It consists of 4 domains: communication, daily living skills, socialization, and motor skills. These domains encompass 11 subdomains, including receptive, expressive, written, personal, domestic, community, interpersonal relationships, play and leisure, coping skills, gross motor, and fine motor. The raw scores will be transformed to standard score ranged from 20 to 140 with a higher number representing better adaptation.

The treatment fidelity is used to assess the feasibility of the program. A 10-minutes clip of the treatment session will be coded according to NDBI-Fi or adapted NDBI-Fi.

The attendance rate is used to evaluate the acceptability of the program for participating families

The completion of the assessment would be investigated by checking whether all the outcome measures are completed by the assessors or caregivers.

This parent-reported questionnaire is a comprehensive assessment tool for identifying behavioral and emotional problems in children. It includes 100 items (scored 0-3) covering multiple domains such as anxiety, depression, social issues, and aggressive behavior, providing a detailed profile of the child's psychological functioning. The score ranges from 0-200, with a higher score representing higher concern of behavior problems.

The Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) is a tool with 77 items (likert-scaled 0-3) designed to evaluate treatment effectiveness for individuals with autism. It comprises four subscales: Speech/Language Communication, Sociability, Sensory/Cognitive Awareness, and Health/Physical Behavior. The reduced scores represented the improvement in these areas.The total score of the ATEC ranges from 0 to 180, with a higher score indicating greater severity of autism symptoms.

It is a 5-point caregiver-reported questionnaire consisting of 34 items, which is used to measure the family empowerment in caregiving for children with special needs. The score ranges from 34-170, with a higher score representing a high level of empowerment.

This questionnaire is used to gauge parental stress from the perspective of parents or caregivers of young children with autism. The test items are grouped into three categories: fundamental social difficulties (item 1,2,11,12,13), challenging behavior management (item 3,4,5,6), and physical concerns (item 7,8,9,10). The total score ranges from 0 to 52, with 0 indicating not stressful, 1 indicating sometimes creates stress, 2 indicating often creates stress, 3 indicating very stressful on a daily basis, and 5 indicating so stressful sometimes we feel we can't cope.

Structured Play assessment is a semi-structured assessment used to measure children's spontaneous play acts. The assessor will interact with the child following a structured play routine and evaluate the play actions. The two indicators are the play diversity and the play complexity. The play acts are hierarchically ordered into 16 play levels. Play diversity represents the number of types of play acts are displayed, while play complexity refers to the highest level of the child's play acts.

It is a tool used to assess repetitive behaviors in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. It includes 43 items (likert-scaled 0-3) divided into six subscales: Stereotyped Behavior, Self-Injurious Behavior, Compulsive Behavior, Ritualistic Behavior, Sameness Behavior, and Restricted Interests, offering a comprehensive evaluation of repetitive behaviors.

This questionnaire measures participation in children aged 2 to 5 years and 11 months. It captures involvement in play, skill development, active physical recreation, and social activities, providing a comprehensive view of their engagement in these crucial developmental areas. It assesses the diversity and frequency of the participated activities.

It is a parent-report or teacher-report questionnaire targeting young children's behaviors in preschools, consisting of social skills scale and problem behavior scale. The social skills scale consists of 34 likert-scaled item (0-3), with a higher score indicating better social skills. The problem behavior scale consists of 42 likert-scaled item (0-3), with a higher score indicating more severe problem behaviors.

This questionnaire assesses public perceptions and understanding of autism. It includes 49 items measuring stigma, misconceptions, and accurate knowledge about autism spectrum disorder. Parents will indicate their agreement or disagreement with each statement. Of these items, 30 are correct statements, and 19 are incorrect statements, helping identify areas where educational interventions are needed to improve awareness and reduce stigma in the community.