When is an assessment an intervention? Parent perception of infant intentionality and language

Objective: To determine whether the process of having parents rate their in fant's intentionality and language using parent-report questionnaires influ ences parents' tendency to view infants as intentional or linguistic. Metho d: The Infant Intentionality Questionnaire (IIQ) and the MacArthur Communic ative Development inventories (CDI) were administered to three groups of mo thers. Forty mothers completed the interviews longitudinally when their inf ants were 8, 10, and 12 months old. A group of 20 mothers completed the int erviews longitudinally when their infants were 10 acid 12 months old. A thi rd group of 20 mothers completed the interviews at 12 months only. Results: IIQ scores increased across age but also were higher if parents had more e xperience with the questionnaire. CDI scores increased with age, but there was no effect of repeated testing. Conclusions: Previous experience with th e IIQ seems to have enhanced the tendency to perceive intentionality. In co ntrast. repeated testing with the CDI did not alter parent perception of ch ild language. These results suggest that some parent-report instruments (e. g., the IIQ) can alter the test-taker's awareness and thus could serve as a n intervention. Parent-report instruments that tap something that is salien t, familiar, and easily observable (e.g., the child's language) are less li kely to alter the parent's perception.