The purpose of this study was to examine the usefulness of the MacArthur- Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) as an assessment tool for low-income, African American (AA) children. The data were from eighty-seven typically developing AA children, aged 8 to 30 months; these children were recruited from childcare centers that served low-income populations in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Each participants primary caregiver completed a biographical sketch and a CDI inventory. Two analyses were completed. The first analysis examined the distribution of the CDI scores relative to the childs age, gender, birth order, and level of maternal education. The second analysis involved examination of the subsections and items of the vocabulary checklist sections of both versions of the CDI.
For the first analysis, the childrens percentile scores were found to be normally distributed. Raw scores on the CDI were also found to increase with the children's ages, and a moderate correlation between CDI raw scores and age was identified. First-born children exhibited higher levels of expressive language than their later-born peers. Additionally, significant group differences were found between males and females on sections of the CDI Words and Gestures inventory, but the direction of the main effects varied across sections. Group differences were not significant for level of maternal education, but a restricted range of educational levels may have contributed to this finding. For the second analysis, results indicated that every item (except basement) from each of the vocabulary sections was comprehended and/or produced by one or more of the children. Sections with the greatest number of marked items included the Sound Effects and Animal Sounds and Games and Routines. Together, these results indicate that the CDI can be considered a useful tool for assessing the early language development of low-income, AA children.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-04032006-155756 |
| Date | 04 April 2006 |
| Creators | Wooden, Elizabeth Waters |
| Contributors | Janet Norris, Hugh Buckingham, Janna Oetting |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04032006-155756/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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