CDI

Tool name
MacArthur-Bates CDI
Use to evaluate
Language and communication skills
Age range
8–37 months (may also be used with older children who have developmental delays)
Completed by
Parents or caregivers (or as interview by professional); professionals score
Time commitment
Each form generally takes 20–40 minutes to complete and 10–15 minutes to score
Capture parents’ knowledge of their child’s emerging language skills
The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs), and the corresponding Spanish-language Inventarios, provide a systematic way for professionals to use parents as informants regarding their child’s language. They enable professionals to tap into parents’ knowledge about their young children’s communicative development for use in screening and developing a prognosis for children with language delays. It also ensures they are meeting mandates for including parent input in child evaluation procedures.
The goal of the CDIs is to yield reliable information on the course of language development from children’s early signs of comprehension, to their first nonverbal gestural signals, to the expansion of early vocabulary and the beginnings of grammar.
Benefits
- valid and reliable
- developed by top language researchers
- parent focused
Developers
What You'll Need

Includes
User's Guide and Technical Manual
Words & Gestures forms
Words & Sentences forms
CDI III