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Validity of the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories for Measuring Language Abilities in Children With Cochlear Implants

Jean L. DesJardin
Laurie S. Eisenberg
House Ear Institute, Los Angeles

Contact author: Donna J. Thal, San Diego State University, School of Speech Language and Hearing Sciences, Developmental Psycholinguistics Laboratory, 6330 Alvarado Court, Suite 231, San Diego, CA 92120-1850. E-mail: dthal{at}mail.sdsu.edu.

Purpose: To examine the validity of the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI) for measuring language abilities in children with profound hearing loss who are using cochlear implants.

Method: Twenty-four children with cochlear implants and their mothers participated in this study. Children ranged in age from 32 months to 86 months (the majority were 32 to 66 months old). The number of months postimplantation ranged from 3 to 60 (the majority were around 24 months). Mothers completed the CDI before behavioral testing. Behavioral measures included the Reynell Developmental Language Scales and measures of vocabulary and grammar from a spontaneous language sample.

Results: Both the Words and Gestures and the Words and Sentences forms of the CDI were shown to have excellent validity for this sample of children, if they had language that was in the range measured by the instrument. Correlations with behavioral measures ranged from .41 to .93 and were comparable to those reported for children with typical development.

Conclusions: The CDI forms are valid tools to use with children who are using cochlear implants and who are in the early stages of language development, even if they are older than the norming sample. Age-equivalence may be obtained if children score below the median for the oldest age norms. They may also be used to describe the language of children who are not at ceiling. Specific recommendations for interventionists are provided.

Key Words: cochlear implants, validity of parent report, language development

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