Baby and Infant Screen for Children with atIsm Traits—Part 3 (BISCUIT-Part 3) The BISCUIT-Part 3 [58] items are organised into three subscales: Aggressive/Disruptive behaviours, Stereotypic behaviours, and Self-Injurious behaviour. Internal consistency of the BISCUIT-Part 3 was reported as good with Cronbach’s alpha >0.70 in two papers [58, 71] but reliability was not assessed. Structural validity, assessed in Matson, Boisjoli et al [71] was not acceptable, with the exploratory factor analysis resulting in a three-factor solution explaining just 38.32% of the variance.

Measurement properties The searches identified 15 papers that assessed one or more of the measurement properties of these six tools.

The Nisonger Child Behavior Rating Form (NCBRF) [62]   I s a rating scale designed to assess social competence and problem behaviour in children with developmental disabilities? There are parent and teacher versions of the scale, which has 76 items altogether, with 10 positive social items before the 66 problem items. Parents are also invited to mention special circumstances which may have affected the child’s behaviour in the last month. The age range for the NCBRF is 3 to 16 years. Participants at the Discussion Day, who particularly appreciated that the items also examined this tool, included some which applied to ASD. However, participants thought some items were poorly worded (e.g. “resisted provocation”), several were not relevant to children in the age range up to 6 years ( including items such as “feels worthless or inferior”) and some items would be typical for a 3-year-old (e.g. “runs away from adults”). We used this tool in one intervention evaluation study [36] in the r

  The Home Situations Questionnaire—Pervasive Developmental Disorders version  (HSQ-PDD) more recently referred to as the HSQ-ASD [60], is a 25 item caregiver questionnaire designed to assess behavioural non-compliance in everyday situations by children. It was modified from the original Home Situations Questionnaire [ 61 ] by Chowdhury et al. [ 59 ] for use in assessment of children with ASD aged 3 to 14 year s, and originates from the Research Units in Pediatric Psychopharmacology Autism Network. The HSQ-PDD was used in one intervention evaluation study [20] in the review.

The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) [5, 56]. This tool is part of the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment. It is a widely used tool, with two formats for children at different age bands. This is a particular strength for longitudinal studies, and both versions are included in the review. The 1.5–5-year format has 99 items , and the 6–18 years version has 118 items, with norms available for typically developing children. The items can be scored on psychiatric scales related to DSM, though this may not be relevant for children with ASD up to 6 years. It was used in three observational [ 19, 24, 43 ] and three [ 32, 41, 42 ] intervention evaluation studies in this review.   The CBCL was one of the two behaviour questionnaires presented to participants at the Discussion Day. They liked the clear instructions, with a time frame of two months, and the wide range of questions, including a qualitative section at the end enquiring about the best things about the child. However,

The Behavior Assessment System for Children Second Edition (BASC-2) Is a widely used tool for assessing behaviours and emotions in children, adolescents and young adults, ranging in age from 2 to 22 years old. The BASC-2 consists of a Structured Developmental History, an Observation System, a Parent Rating Scale (134–160 items depending on age), a Self-Report of Personality Scale, and a Teacher Rating Scale (100–139 items). It was used to measure behaviours problems in one observational study in the review.