Joan E Furey1. 1. Department of Communication, The College of Wooster, Wishart Hall, Wooster, OH 44691, USA. jfurey@wooster.edu
Abstract
PURPOSE: To compare maternal report of children's vocabularies on the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories Words and Gestures form (CDI:WG; Fenson et al., 1993) with spontaneous production data in both low- and middle-income families. METHOD: As part of a longitudinal investigation, language samples were gathered from 23 mother-child dyads based on Stoel-Gammon's (1987) protocol for the Language Production Scale when the children were 16 and 18 months of age. The mothers also completed the CDI:WG at both visits. The words that the children produced were compared with those the mothers reported on the vocabulary checklist, with family income and vocabulary size as grouping factors. RESULTS: Maternal reporting did not differ as a function of socioeconomic status but did increase from 16 to 18 months. CONCLUSIONS: The vocabulary differences observed on the CDI:WG for children from low-income families do not appear to be a reflection of inaccurate maternal reporting. Further research is needed to determine whether these findings will generalize more broadly.
PURPOSE: To compare maternal report of children's vocabularies on the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories Words and Gestures form (CDI:WG; Fenson et al., 1993) with spontaneous production data in both low- and middle-income families. METHOD: As part of a longitudinal investigation, language samples were gathered from 23 mother-child dyads based on Stoel-Gammon's (1987) protocol for the Language Production Scale when the children were 16 and 18 months of age. The mothers also completed the CDI:WG at both visits. The words that the children produced were compared with those the mothers reported on the vocabulary checklist, with family income and vocabulary size as grouping factors. RESULTS: Maternal reporting did not differ as a function of socioeconomic status but did increase from 16 to 18 months. CONCLUSIONS: The vocabulary differences observed on the CDI:WG for children from low-income families do not appear to be a reflection of inaccurate maternal reporting. Further research is needed to determine whether these findings will generalize more broadly.