Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind November 13, 2013

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

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

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

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: • www.sci.sdsu.edu/cdi/lexical_e.htm • 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