How well can the Chinese Communicative Development Inventories (CCDI) tell toddlers' expressive language ability?

Abstract

The first aim of this study is to investigate the criterion validity of the Chinese Communicative Development Inventories (CCDI) using direct measures of the children’s language. The direct measures were the Expressive score of the Reynell Developmental Language Scales (E-RDLS) and mean length of utterance (MLU). Twenty-seven parents and their children aged between 25 and 30 months old participated. The children’s CCDI scores were moderately correlated with their E-RDLS scores and MLUs, indicating that CCDI demonstrated adequate criterion validity. The second aim of the study is to examine CCDI’s screening accuracy in 11 children with normal language and 3 children with language delay. These children’s language status was defined by their performance in E-RDLS and MLU. CCDI’s sensitivity and specificity was 33% and 91% respectively, suggesting that CCDI could accurately screen children with normal language but not language delay in this small sample. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.