Short-form versions of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories

TLDR

The MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs) are widely used parent‑report instruments for assessing communicative skills in infants and toddlers. This report introduces short‑form versions of the CDIs, detailing their development, normative data, psychometric properties, and potential research and clinical uses. The short forms comprise an 89‑word checklist for 8‑to‑18‑month‑old infants (Level I) and two 100‑word production checklists plus a word‑combination question for 16‑to‑30‑month‑old toddlers (Level II Forms A and B), with copies and normative tables provided in the appendices. The short forms may also be useful for assessing developmentally delayed children outside the intended age ranges.

Abstract

The MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs) are a pair of widely used parent-report instruments for assessing communicative skills in infants and toddlers. This report describes short-form versions of the CDIs and their development, summarizes newly available normative data and psychometric properties of the instruments, and discusses research and clinical applications. The infant short form (Level I, for 8- to 18-month-olds) contains an 89-word checklist for vocabulary comprehension and production. The two parallel versions of the toddler short form (Level II, Forms A and B, for 16- to 30-month-olds) each contain a 100-word vocabulary production checklist and a question about word combinations. The forms may also be useful with developmentally delayed children beyond the specified age ranges. Copies of the short forms and the normative tables appear in the appendices.