MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI)

The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) is a parent-focused instrument measuring the communicative development of children aged 8-37 months. CDI allows professionals to screen and develop prognoses for language delays by tapping into parents’ knowledge of their children’s language skills, starting from early comprehension to early vocabulary and grammar expansion.

Content

Category

Student Well-Being

Sub-Category

Child Development

Domains

Communicative development

Grades

< 3 Years

Languages

English,

Spanish,

Other

Other Language/s

Afrikaans, Albanian, American Sign Language, Arabic (multiple), Arrernte, Warlpiri, Bengali, Basque, British Sign Language, Bulgarian, Catalan, Cantonese (Hong Kong), Changana, Chichewa/Nyanja, Chiyao, Croatian, Czhech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Faroese, Finnish, French (multiple), Galician, German (multiple), German Sign Language, Greek, (West) Greenlandic, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Inuktitut, Israeli Sign Language, Italian, Italian Sign Language, Jamaican Creole, Japanese, Kannada, Kinyarwanda, Kishwahili/Kigiriama, Klingon, Krio, Korean, Latvian, Malawian, Malayalam, Mandarin (multiple), Mandinka, Ngas, North Sami, North Australian Kriol, Norwegian, Persian/Farsi, Polish, Portuguese (multiple), Ronga, Russian, Samoan, Sasak, Serbian, Setswana/Tswana, Shona, Sindhi, Sign Language of the Netherlands, Slovak, Slovenian, South Sotho, Swedish, Tagalog, Tamil, Thai, Tongan, Turkish, Turkish Sign Language, Urdu, Vietnamese, Wolof, Xhos, Yiddish

Respondent

Parent,

Examiner

Administration Information

Length

20–40 minutes

Administration

Computer,

Paper

Access and Use

Price

Prices vary, see the publisher’s website.

Contact

CDI publisher (Brookes) customer support: +1-800-638-3775

Link

MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory

Open Access

Use in Research

Castellanos, I., Pisoni, D. B., Kronenberger, W. G., & Beer, J. (2016). Early expressive language skills predict long-term neurocognitive outcomes in cochlear implant users: Evidence from the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 25(3), 381-392. https://doi.org/10.1044/2016_AJSLP-15-0023

Law, J., & Roy, P. (2008). Parental report of infant language skills: A review of the development and application of the Communicative Development Inventories. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 13(4), 198-206. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-3588.2008.00503.x

Luyster, R., Lopez, K., & Lord, C. (2007). Characterizing communicative development in children referred for autism spectrum disorders using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI). Journal of Child Language, 34(3), 623-654. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000907008094

Psychometrics

Scoring

Computer scoring,

Manual scoring

Psychometric References

Fenson, L., et al. (2006). The MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories User’s Guide and Technical Manual. 2nd Edition. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. learn more here

Heilmann, J., Weismer, S. E., Evans, J., & Hollar, C. (2005). Utility of the MacArthur—Bates Communicative Development Inventory in identifying language abilities of late-talking and typically developing toddlers. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 14(1), 40-51. https://doi.org/10.1044/1058-0360(2005/006)

Mayor, J., & Mani, N. (2019). A short version of the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories with high validity. Behavior Research Methods, 51(5), 2248-2255. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-018-1146-0

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