scholarly journals A comparison of the transition from first words to grammar in English and Italian

1999 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
CRISTINA CASELLI ◽  
PAOLA CASADIO ◽  
ELIZABETH BATES
Keyword(s):  
Parent Report ◽  
Social Constraints ◽  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Grammatical Development ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Grammatical Complexity ◽  
Macarthur Communicative Development Inventory ◽  
Age Range

Cross-linguistic similarities and differences in early lexical and grammatical development are reported for 1001 English-speaking children and 386 Italian-speaking children between 1;6 and 2;6. Parents completed the English or Italian versions of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences, a parent report instrument that provides information about vocabulary size, vocabulary composition and grammatical complexity across this age range. The onset and subsequent growth of nouns, predicates, function words and social terms proved to be quite similar in both languages. No support was found for the prediction that verbs would emerge earlier in Italian, although Italians did produce a higher proportion of social terms, and there were small but intriguing differences in the shape of the growth curve for grammatical function words. A strikingly similar nonlinear relationship between grammatical complexity and vocabulary size was observed in both languages, and examination of the order in which function words are acquired also yielded more similarities than differences. However, a comparison of the longest sentences reported for a subset of children demonstrates large cross-linguistic differences in the amount of morphology that has been acquired in children matched for vocabulary size. Discussion revolves around the interplay between language-specific variations in the input to young children, and universal cognitive and social constraints on language development.

Early vocabulary development in Mandarin (Putonghua) and Cantonese

2009 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 1115-1144 ◽  
Author(s):  
TWILA TARDIF ◽  
PAUL FLETCHER ◽  
WEILAN LIANG ◽  
NIKO KACIROTI
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Trajectories ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Parent Report ◽  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Caregiver Education ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Parental Reports ◽  
The Difference

ABSTRACTParent report instruments adapted from the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI) examined vocabulary development in children aged 0 ; 8 to 2 ; 6 for two Chinese languages, Mandarin (n=1694) and Cantonese (n=1625). Parental reports suggested higher overall scores for Mandarin- than for Cantonese-speaking children from approximately 1 ; 4 onward. Factors relevant to the difference were only-child status, monolingual households and caregiver education. In addition to the comparison of vocabulary scores overall, the development of noun classifiers, grammatical function words common to the two languages, was assessed both in terms of the age and the vocabulary size at which these terms are acquired. Whereas age-based developmental trajectories again showed an advantage for Beijing children, Hong Kong children used classifiers when they had smaller vocabularies, reflecting the higher frequencies and greater precision of classifier use in adult Cantonese. The data speak to the importance of using not just age, but also vocabulary size, as a metric by which the acquisition of particular linguistic elements can be examined across languages.

Scores on the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory of children from lowand middle-income families

1998 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rose I. Arriaga ◽  
Larry Fenson ◽  
Terry Cronan ◽  
Stephen J. Pethick
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Income Group ◽  
Parent Report ◽  
Assessment Instrument ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Grammatical Development ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Macarthur Communicative Development Inventory ◽  
Age Range

AbstractThis study compared the language skills in a group of very low-income toddlers with those of a middle-income sample matched on age and sex. The assessment instrument was the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) for toddlers, a parent report form. The scores for the low-income group were strikingly lower on the three key indices evaluated: size of expressive vocabulary, age of appearance of word combinations, and complexity of utterances. The entire lowincome distribution was shifted about 30% toward the lower end of the middle-income distribution for both productive vocabulary and grammatical development. The magnitude of these income/ social class effects was larger than reported in most prior reports for children in this age range. This finding underscores the cautionary note issued by the CDI developers, which states that the published CDI norms, based on a middle-class sample, may not be directly applicable to low-income samples.

scholarly journals Lexical Selectivity of 2-Year-Old Children With and Without Repaired Cleft Palate Based on Parent Report

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (9) ◽  
pp. 1117-1124
Author(s):  
Adriane Baylis ◽  
Linda D. Vallino ◽  
Juliana Powell ◽  
David J. Zajac
Keyword(s):  
Cleft Palate ◽  
Cleft Lip ◽  
Cleft Lip And Palate ◽  
Parent Report ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Ventilation Tubes ◽  
History Of ◽  
Macarthur Communicative Development Inventory

Objective: To determine vocabulary and lexical selectivity characteristics of children with and without repaired cleft palate at 24 months of age, based on parent report. Participants: Forty-nine children with repaired cleft palate, with or without cleft lip (CP±L; 25 males; 21 cleft lip and palate, 28 CP only), 29 children with a history of otitis media (OM) and ventilation tubes (21 males), and 25 typically developing (TD) children (13 males). Main Outcome Measure(s): Parent-reported expressive vocabulary was determined using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences. Results: Vocabulary size was reduced for children with repaired CP±L compared to children in the TD group ( P = .025) but not the OM group ( P = .403). Mean percentage of words beginning with sonorants did not differ across groups ( P = .383). Vocabulary size predicted sonorant use for all groups ( P = .001). Conclusions: Children with repaired CP±L exhibit similar lexical selectivity relative to word initial sounds compared to noncleft TD and OM peers at 24 months of age, based on parent report.

Parental reports of communicative development at the age of 36 months: The Estonian CDI-III

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-83
Author(s):  
Tiia Tulviste ◽  
Astra Schults
Keyword(s):  
Day Care ◽  
Parent Report ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Communicative Skills ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Language Difficulties ◽  
Parental Reports ◽  
Language Measures ◽  
The Impact

Parental reports are a widely-used source of information about infants’ and toddlers’ communicative skills, but parent-report instruments valid for children older than 30 months are less known. This study explored individual variability in children’s communicative skills at the age of 3;0 via parental reports using the Estonian (E) CDI-III. The validity of ECDI-III was established through correlations with another parent-report instrument (ECDI-II) and a standardized examiner-administered language assessment (New Reynell Developmental Language Scales; NRDLS). A hundred Estonian-speaking children ( M age = 35.77 months, age range from 34 to 39 months; 20 of them with reported language difficulties) participated in the study. Relations between different communicative skills and the impact of such factors as the child’s gender, maternal and paternal education, reported language difficulties, the number of siblings, and day care attendance on variability in vocabulary size were also considered. The results showed that the ECDI-III components were moderately to strongly associated with each other, with the ECDI-II and NRDLS. Children with reported language difficulties scored lower on all language measures, except for orthographic awareness. Girls, children of more educated mothers, children with older siblings, and those who had attended day care for more months obtained higher vocabulary scores.

scholarly journals Bilingual adjusted vocabulary: A developmentally-informed bilingual vocabulary measure

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Maria Gonzalez-Barrero ◽  
Esther Schott ◽  
Krista Byers-Heinlein
Keyword(s):  
Parent Report ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Learning Abilities ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Traditional Approaches ◽  
Cross Language

Vocabulary size is one of the most important early metrics of language development. Assessing vocabulary in bilingual children is complex because bilinguals learn words in two languages, which include translation equivalents (cross-language synonyms). We collected expressive vocabulary data from English and French monolinguals (n = 220), and English–French bilinguals (n = 184) aged 18–33 months, via parent report using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories, and quantified bilinguals’ vocabulary size using different approaches to counting translation equivalents. Our results showed that traditional approaches yield larger (word vocabulary) or smaller (concept vocabulary) quantification of bilinguals’ vocabulary knowledge relative to monolinguals. We propose a new metric, the bilingual adjusted vocabulary, that yields similar vocabulary sizes for monolinguals and bilinguals across different ages. Uniquely, this approach counts translation equivalents differently depending on the child’s age. This developmentally-informed bilingual vocabulary measure reveals differences in word learning abilities across ages, and provides a new approach to measure vocabulary in bilingual toddlers.

Early language development and the emergence of a theory of mind

2002 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Jeffrey Farrar ◽  
Lisa Maag
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Standard Theory ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Grammatical Development ◽  
Early Language Development ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Mother And Child ◽  
Macarthur Communicative Development Inventory

The current study examined the relation between children's language development at 2 years of age and their theory of mind performance at 4 years of age. Twenty toddlers were initially tested when they were 2 years old. Measures of both lexical and grammatical development were obtained from: (1) parental completion of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (MCDI), and (2) a naturalistic play session between mother and child. The children returned at 4 years and were given four standard theory of mind tasks to assess understanding of: (a) false belief, (b) representational change, and (c) appearance-reality. In addition, in order to control for general language and cognitive development, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and the Woodcock-Johnson Memory for Sentences Test were also given. Strong associations were found between early language development and later theory of mind performance. These relationships may reflect similar social cognitive processes that govern the development of both language and theory of mind.

Concurrent Validity of Caregiver/Parent Report Measures of Language for Children Who Are Learning Both English and Spanish

2002 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 983-997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia A. Marchman ◽  
Carmen Martínez-Sussmann
Keyword(s):  
Concurrent Validity ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Parent Report ◽  
Object Naming ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Early Language Development ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Macarthur Communicative Development Inventory

The validity of two analogous caregiver/parent report measures of early language development in young children who are learning both English and Spanish is examined. Caregiver/parent report indices of vocabulary production and grammar were obtained for 26 children using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory: Words & Sentences (CDI; Fenson et al., 1994) and the Inventario del Desarrollo de Habilidades Comunicativas: Palabras y Enunciados (IDHC; Jackson-Maldonado, Bates, & Thal, 1992). Scores were significantly correlated with analogous laboratory measures in both English and Spanish, including a real-object naming task and spontaneous language use during freeplay. The findings offer evidence that the CDI and IDHC provide valid assessments of early language milestones in young English- and Spanish-speaking children. Factors that may influence the validity of these tools for use with this population are also discussed.

Validity of a Parent Report Measure of Vocabulary and Syntax for Preschool Children With Language Impairment

1999 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 482-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna J. Thal ◽  
Laureen O'Hanlon ◽  
Mary Clemmons ◽  
LaShon Fralin
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Concurrent Validity ◽  
Parent Report ◽  
Language Delay ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Behavioral Measures ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Vocabulary Comprehension ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
Macarthur Communicative Development Inventory

Previous research has documented the validity of parent report for measuring vocabulary and grammar in typically developing toddlers. In this project, two studies examined the validity of parent report for measuring language in children with specific language delay who are older than the normative group, but who have language levels within the range measured by the instruments. In Study 1, scores on the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences were compared to behavioral measures of production of vocabulary and grammar in 39- to 49-month-old children with language delay. Results indicated moderately high to high concurrent validity correlations in both domains (.67–.86). In Study 2, scores on the MacArthur Communicative Inventory: Words and Gestures were compared to behavioral measures of vocabulary comprehension and production and gesture production in 24- to 32-month-old children with language delay. Results indicated a moderately high concurrent validity correlation for vocabulary production (.66). Parent report of comprehension and gesture scores did not correlate significantly with their behavioral counterparts, but gesture scores were moderately highly correlated with language comprehension (.65).

scholarly journals Measuring Spanish Comprehension in Infants from Mixed Hispanic Communities Using the IDHC: A Preliminary Study on 16-Month-Olds

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Sandy Gonzalez ◽  
Eliza Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Family Background ◽  
Parent Report ◽  
South Florida ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
Age Range ◽  
Report Measure

The MacArthur Inventario del Desarrollo de Habilidades Comunicativas: Primeras Palabras y Gestos (IDHC) is a widely-used parent report measure for infant Spanish language comprehension. The IDHC was originally created for use with infants of Mexican background. According to the U.S. 2017 census, however, about 37% of U.S. Hispanics are not of Mexican origin. In Miami-Dade, a large county in South Florida, 98% of Hispanics do not identify Mexico as their country of origin. IDHC use in mixed Hispanic communities such as Miami may be problematic due to differences in dialect and object labels. This study explored whether excluding IDHC words flagged as unknown or not commonly used by adults from mixed Hispanic communities affects bilingual infants’ vocabulary size. Data were collected from Hispanic 16-month-old infants (N = 27; females = 13) from a mixture of Latin American backgrounds residing in Miami, FL, USA, and compared to archival data from the IDHC Mexican norming sample (N = 60; females = 31). Findings indicate significant differences in the rate of comprehension between the two samples with infants from mixed Latin American backgrounds demonstrating lower rates of comprehension for words flagged as unknown/uncommon. Moreover, Spanish vocabulary scores for infants from mixed Hispanic communities were significantly lower compared to the Mexican norming sample. Use of total vocabulary score (i.e., Spanish + English) attenuated these issues in administrating the IDHC to bilingual infants from mixed Hispanic communities. Results suggest that comprehension of some IDHC words is influenced by Hispanic family background. These preliminary findings highlight potential issues in IDHC administration that require further investigation in additional samples spanning the full age range of the IDHC and from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds to effectively tune how we assess infant Spanish language comprehension to cultural differences.

Parental Reports of Spoken Language Skills in Children With Down Syndrome

2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Berglund ◽  
Mårten Eriksson ◽  
Iréne Johansson
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Logistic Growth ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Children With Down Syndrome ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Parental Reports ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Spoken Language Skills ◽  
Age Range

Spoken language in children with Down syndrome and in children in a normative group was compared. Growth trends, individual variation, sex differences, and performance on vocabulary, pragmatic, and grammar scales as well as MaxLU (maximum length of utterance) were explored. Subjects were 330 children withDown syndrome (age range: 1–5 years) and 336 children in a normative group (1;4–2;4 years;months). The Swedish Early Communicative Development Inventory-words and sentences (SECDI-w&s) was employed. Performance of children with Down syndrome at ages 3;0 and 4;0 was comparable with that ofchildren in the normative group at ages 1;4 and 1;8 respectively. In comparison with children in the normative group of similar vocabulary size, children with Down syndrome lagged slightly on pragmatic and grammar scales. The early development proceeded in most cases with exponential or logistic growth. This stresses the great potential of early intervention.

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