THE COMMUNICATIVE DEVELOPMENT INVENTORY WORDS SHORT-FORM AS AN INDEX OF LANGUAGE PRODUCTION

This longitudinal study was designed to examine the CDI-WORDS Short Fo rm vocabulary checklist (Reznick & Goldsmith, 1989) as an index of lan guage production. In particular, we were curious about: (1) the concur rent associations between the CDI-WORDS Short Form checklist measure a nd directly observed measures of lexical production; (2) the associati ons between Short Form checklists administered at different ages; and (3) the predictive associations between Short Form scores and subseque nt measures of more general intellectual abilities (i.e. the Wechlser Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence; WPPSI-R; Wechsler, 1989). In a sample of 32 children, significant correlations were found betwe en CDI-WORDS Short Form scores and directly observed measures of lexic al production at both 1;6 and 2;0. Further, both the Short Form checkl ist and the observed measure of lexical production were found to predi ct WPPSI-R Verbal IQ scores but not the Performance IQ scores at 4;0. Additional analyses demonstrated the predictive and convergent validit y of the CDI-WORDS Short Form, and underscored the additional value of direct observational measures of lexical production during early lexi cal development.