MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (CDI) : Words and Sentences, NCS Scannable

Professionals can learn a great deal about young children's emerging language and communication skills by consulting the ones who know the children best: their parents or caregivers.

CDIs At A Glance - Age range covered: 8-30 months (may also be used with older children who have developmental delays); Areas screened: Language and communication skills; Approximate time for the CDI: Each form generally takes 20-40 minutes to complete and 10-15 minutes to score; Who completes it: Parents or caregivers; professionals score; and Validity and reliability: Numerous studies document the reliability and the validity of the instruments.

The CDIs were normed on approximately 1,800 children in three locations, and the Inventories were normed on more than 2,000 children.

Now, with the CDIs professionals can tap into parents' invaluable day-to-day knowledge - and respond to legislation that requires parental input in child evaluations.

Top language researchers developed these standardized, parent-completed report designing the forms to focus on current behaviors and salient emergent behaviors that parents can recognize and track. ""CDI: Words and Sentences"" is for use with children ages 16-30 months, the first part prompts parents to document the child's understanding of hundreds of early vocabulary items separated into semantic categories.

The second part analyzes the early phases of grammar, including the child's understanding of word forms and the complexity of the child's multi-word utterances.

Parents identify the words the child has understood or used and provide written examples of the child's three longest sentences. A pack of 20 forms.