1. Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind November 13, 2013
Assessments for Children Birth to 3: Part 2 MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Gestures
Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind
November 13, 2013

2. Presenter Allison Sedey, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, CCC-A
University of Colorado-Boulder
Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind

3. Today’s Topics Description of assessment
Instructions for administration
Opportunity for families with children who are d/hoh to participate in NECAP
Interpretation and use of results

4. Age level 8 to 18 months Older children with language delay
Girls with < 70 words in productive vocabulary
Boys with < 50 words in productive vocabulary

5. Areas assessed Comprehension of phrases Vocabulary comprehension
Expressive vocabulary (396 words)
Communicative gestures
Symbolic gestures/pretend play

6. Published version Available from Brookes Publishing Co.
Available in English or Spanish
Separate norms for each language

7. Adapted version for d/hoh
Adapted at the University of Colorado- Boulder
“Sign” column added
Can count words spoken, signed, and produced in both speech and sign
Available in English or Spanish

8. Instructions to Parents
Can rely only on instructions on form
Can provide supplemental instructions
Verbally
In writing

9. Discussing Inconsistencies
Opportunity to learn something you may have been unaware of
Opportunity to improve parents’ observational skills of child’s language
“I see you marked that Anna says ‘now’. Can you give me an example of a situation when she said/signed that word?”

10. Scoring If child’s CA is within age range of the test (8 to 18 months)
Obtain percentile scores
If child’s CA is >18 months
Obtain age scores
Look for your child’s raw score on the 50th %ile line
See age associated with that score

11. NECAP National Early Childhood Assessment Project
Assisting interested states in administering two developmental assessments
Minnesota Child Development Inventory
MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory

12. NECAP National Early Childhood Assessment Project
For children who are deaf or hard of hearing
Assessments scored by CU-Boulder
Report of child’s results sent to interventionist and/or family
Annual accountability report sent to participating state/agency

13. NECAP Allison.Sedey@colorado.edu
**State- or agency-level administrators interested in participating in NECAP can contact:

14. Interpreting Results Compare subscale scores
Typically developing children show approximately equivalent scores across all sections

15. Interpreting Results Comprehension vs. production
If delays exist in both, more significant problem than if only production delays

16. Interpreting Results Gestures vs. linguistic items
Gestures often indication of more general cognitive ability
Cognitive red flag if gesture scores are substantially below CA
Cognition should predict linguistic ability
Language red flag if gesture scores significantly exceed linguistic scores

17. Interpreting “often”, “sometimes”, “not yet” items
Using the tables in the manual
Compare child’s status with percentage of age-mates who received an “often” or “sometimes” response

18. Using Results to Guide Intervention
Evaluate communication approach being used (# of words signed vs. spoken)
Provide parent education
significance of vocabulary development for future academic success
Importance of having more than labels

19. Using Results to Guide Intervention
Obtain ratio of nouns to “other” words
Should be between .3 and .6
That is, for every 10 nouns a child produces, he/she typically produces between 3 and 6 other types of words
Deaf/hoh children are often “noun heavy”
Focus on vocabulary in semantic categories where child’s scores are low

20. Using Results to Guide Intervention
To see which words are typically known at each age level go to:
Lists the percentage of children comprehending or producing each individual word at each age
Can search database by age level, semantic category, specific words, or word frequency