MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs), Second Edition
By Larry Fenson, Ph.D., Virginia A. Marchman, Ph.D., Donna J. Thal, Ph.D., Philip S. Dale, Ph.D., J. Steven Reznick, Ph.D., &  Elizabeth Bates, Ph.D.

and

MacArthur-Bates Inventarios del Desarrollo de Habilidades Comunicativas (Inventarios)
Translated and adapted by Donna Jackson-Maldonado, Ph.D., Elizabeth Bates, Ph.D., & Donna J. Thal, Ph.D.

• A “words and gestures” form. The CDI: Words and Gestures and Inventario I: Primeras Palabras y Gestos are for 8–18 months. In both the forms, the first part prompts parents to document the child’s understanding of hundreds of early vocabulary items separated into semantic categories such as animal names, household items, and action words. Parents mark the words understood or used, and the forms yield separate indexes of words understood and words produced. The second part of each form asks parents to record the communicative and symbolic gestures the child has tried or completed.
  
  Note: The Spanish and English forms were developed separately to reflect the vocabulary and grammatical structure of each language.
  
  
• A “words and sentences” form. Both CDI: Words and Sentences and Inventario II: Palabras y Enunciados are for use with children ages 16–30 months. In the first part of each form, parents document the child’s production and use of hundreds of words divided into semantic categories. The second part analyzes the early phases of grammar, including the child’s understanding of word forms and the complexity of the child’s multi-word utterances. Parents identify the words the child has understood or used and provide written examples of the child’s three longest sentences.
  
  Note: Vocabulary checklists in the Inventarios were adapted to reflect linguistic and cultural differences, and the grammar section was modified to fit certain features of the Spanish language, such as the existence of four definite articles.
  
  
• New! CDI-III, an extension of the CDIs for children 30–37 months of age, is a short, single-sheet tool that measures expressive vocabulary and grammar. The first component is a 100-item vocabulary checklist (including 45 words from the CDI: Words and Sentences and 55 new words). The second component consists of 13 questions about the child's word combinations (including five drawn from the CDI: Words and Sentences and seven new items developed to reach the appropriate difficulty level). The third and final component consists of 12 questions, to be answered "yes" or "no," asking about various aspects of comprehension, semantics and syntax.
  
  
• User’s Guide and Technical Manual. The manuals for the CDIs (by Larry Fenson, Ph.D., Philip S. Dale, Ph.D., J. Steven Reznick, Ph.D., Donna Thal, Ph.D., Elizabeth Bates, Ph.D., Jeffrey P. Hartung, M.S., Steve Pethick, M.A., & Judy S. Reilly, Ph.D.) and the Inventarios (by Donna Jackson-Maldonado, Ph.D., Donna J. Thal, Ph.D., Virginia A. Marchman, Ph.D., Larry Fenson, Ph.D., Tyler Newton, M.A., & Barbara Conboy, Ph.D.) are both in English, but each has been tailored to the content of its corresponding tool. Both provide detailed instructions for administering, scoring, and interpreting the forms; various uses of the inventories for clinical and research purposes; background infor-mation on the development of the forms; technical reports on reliability and validity; and tables and graphs of norming data.

What's New? The second edition of the English User’s Guide and Technical Manual includes: more demographically balanced normative data norms up to 17-18 months for the CDI: Words & Gestures more directions on administrating and scoring the CDIs an introduction to the automated CDI Scoring Program guidance on how scores for various subpopulations should be interpreted expanded information on machine scanning and a new option using desktop scanners key updates on research, clinical findings, and reliability and validity detailed information and normative values for the CDI-III, an extension for children 30–37 months of age

CDIs and Inventarios At A Glance Age range covered: 8–37 months (may also be used with older children who have developmental delays) Areas screened: Language and communication skills Approximate time for the CDIs and the Inventarios: Each form generally takes 20–40 minutes to complete and 10–15 minutes to score CDI components: CDI: Words and Gestures, CDI: Words and Sentences, CDI-III, User’s Guide and Technical Manual Inventarios components: Inventario I: Primeras Palabras y Gestos, Inventario II: Palabras y Enunciados, User’s Guide and Technical Manual Who completes it: Parents or caregivers; professionals score Validity and reliability: Numerous studies document the reliability and the validity of the instruments. The CDIs were normed on approximately 1,800 children in three locations, and the Inventarios were normed on more than 2,000 children. Language: The CDIs are in English; the Inventarios are in Spanish