1. Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind November 20, 2013
Assessments for Children Birth to 3: Part 3 MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences
Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind
November 20, 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 16 to 30 months Older children with language delay
Girls with words in productive vocabulary
Boys with words in productive vocabulary

5. Areas assessed Expressive vocabulary (680 words)
Semantic functions (how child uses words)
Word endings
Irregular nouns and verbs
Sentence length/complexity

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
Go over section where parent picks one of two sentences varying in complexity(often misunderstood)

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 (16 to 30 months)
Obtain percentile scores
If child’s CA is >30 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 generally show approximately equivalent scores across all sections

15. Interpreting Results Single words vs. word combinations
By the time child produces 50 words, word combinations are expected
Use of irregular forms (e.g., men, ran)
Expected at about 2 years of age
Not relevant to families using ASL only

16. 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

17. Using Results to Guide Intervention
Setting the Bar: Information from normative tables can help interventionists and parents understand the magnitude of vocabulary growth needed per month
From 16 to 30 months children learn to produce an average of 37 words a month

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
Setting the bar

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