Screening Versions of the European Portuguese MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories Short Forms: Development and Preliminary Validation

Filipe, Marisa; Severino, Cátia; Vigário, Marina; Frota, Sónia

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1534392

BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Psychol.

Sec. Developmental Psychology

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1534392

Screening Versions of the European Portuguese MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories Short Forms: Development and Preliminary Validation

Provisionally accepted

Marisa Filipe

Cátia Severino

Marina Vigário

Sónia Frota ^*

Faculty of Letters, University of Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

This study aimed to develop and validate the screening versions of the European Portuguese MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories Short Forms (EP CDI-SFs), intended to guide referrals for comprehensive language assessments in infants and toddlers. The first cohort, aged 8 to 18 months, included 1293 typically developing children (Mage = 12.23, SD = 3.12, 50.2% male), 170 children at-risk for language impairments (Mage = 11.76, SD = 2.81, 45.9% male), and 39 children with Down syndrome (Mage = 12.28, SD = 3.40, 56.4% male), assessed using the EP CDI-SF Level I. The second cohort, aged 16 to 30 months, included 1155 typically developing children (Mage = 23.45, SD = 4.07, 51.2% male), 181 children at-risk for language impairments (Mage = 23.23, SD = 4.31, 47% male), and 46 children with Down syndrome (Mage = 23.09, SD = 3.93, 69.6% male), assessed with the EP CDI-SF Level II. Through factor analysis, the 20 most psychometrically robust items from each form were identified and used to develop the new screening versions (EP CDI-Scr). Strong correlations between the EP CDI-SFs and EP CDI-Scr results for typically developing children, along with excellent internal consistency, supported the validity and reliability of the new tools. Furthermore, the EP CDI-Scr versions demonstrated excellent sensitivity and moderate specificity. They effectively distinguished between typically developing children, those at-risk for language impairments, and those with Down syndrome, confirming strong discriminant validity. These findings establish the preliminary validity, reliability, and effectiveness of the EP CDI-Scr, supporting timely referrals for comprehensive language evaluations.

Keywords: MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories Short Forms, European Portuguese, screening versions, Vocabulary assessment, infants, toddlers

Received: 25 Nov 2024; Accepted: 25 Feb 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Filipe, Severino, Vigário and Frota. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Sónia Frota, Faculty of Letters, University of Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal

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