Parents as Informants of their Child's Vocal and Early Language Development

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Abstract
Continuity in vocalization and language development was examined in the longitudinal study of 94 children. Parents observed their infant's vocal development with the help of a checklist during the first year of life and reported their lexical development by using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (the CDIs) at the ages of 14 and 18 months. The Reynell Developmental Language Scales (the RDLS) were administered to the children in a laboratory setting at 18 months. The vocalization checklist revealed milestones of sound production which parents reported reliably and which were significantly related to the child's later language development. The continuity in vocal and language development was supported by a subgroup analysis, which showed that the early vocalizers had comprehended and produced significantly more words and suffixes than had the late vocalizers during the second year. The results also provided support to the concurrent and predictive validity of the CDIs. Significant correlations were obtained between parental reports of their children's lexical development and the more structured instrument of the RDLS. The correlations were higher for word production measures than for those of word comprehension. Methodological issues concerning parental assessment of the child's vocal and lexical development will be discussed.