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Hannah Greub
Alexandra Carley
Introduction
The child we assessed is named Alex and she is a 26 month old female. In doing this
assessment, we were hoping to follow up with the parents concern with the childs language
skills based on the development of other female children at 26 months old. Through the
MacArthur-Bates CDI: Words and Sentences, we were able to assess the language/
communication domain. The assessment gave us the opportunity to find percentiles, [which] are
useful in determining if a childs performance is on age or grade level, (Mindes and Jung, 2015,
p. 81). From these percentiles, we were able to look at the words Alex used and how she used
them, as well as her word endings, morpheme use, and sentence complexity.
Data Summary
Interpretation
Alex produced 313 out of the 680 vocabulary words, which puts her in the 30th percentile
of children also at 26 months old. This means that 30 percent or less of female 26 month old
children also know 313 vocabulary words. This may be concerning to some parents because this
also means that 70 percent of children her age know more vocab words than she does. Alex
produced 6 out of 25 word forms (ex., feet vs. foot), which puts her in the 40th percentile of
female children also at 26 months old. This means that 40 percent or less of female 26 month old
children also produce 6 word forms. In contrast, 60 percent of 26 month old female children
produce more than 6 word forms. This may be of slightly less concern due to the proximity of
this score to the average. Alex produced on average 3.67 morphemes in examples of her longest
sentences. This tells us that she is at the 26th percentile for mean length of sentences for females
her age. This means that 26 percent or less of females her age produced on average 3.67
morphemes, while 74 percent of 26 month old female children produce sentences with a greater
number of morphemes, which is of some concern. Alex is among 82 percent of children that talk
about past events of people who are not present, among 85 percent of children who talk about
something that will happen in the future, among 78 percent of children who add -s to words
when talking about more than one thing, among 79 percent of children who add an -s when
talking about ownership, among 48 percent of children who add -ed when talking about things
that happened in the past. These areas are not of concern because she is included in the
percentage of children that exhibit these skills. However, it is of concern that she is not included
in the 64 percent of children who add ing to their verbs to indicate the use of the progressive
forms.
Recommendation
From this assessment, there are no areas of high enough concern to seek an outside
specialist. However, there are a few categories that could use improvement through
environmental enrichment both at home and at school. To start, Alex scored in the 30th
percentile of the vocabulary checklist. To improve this, we recommend exposing Alex to new
vocabulary through reading material with a wider range of words. We suggest reading the same
book more than once a week, as well as using the vocabulary from the books in day-to-day
conversations with her. Next, Alex scored in the 26th percentile for mean length of sentences. To
improve this, we would suggest asking her open-ended questions and using reflective language
to encourage her to use longer sentence lengths. Some examples of this include asking tell me
more or What else would you like to say about that? Lastly, Alex is not among the 64 percent
of children who use the progressive -ing. To help her with this, we would suggest intentionally
scaffolding through recasting, which means to correct Alex when she using the incorrect verb
form. For example, if Alex said I am run!, you could say to her, Yes, you are running!.
While saying this you can emphasize the -ing for maximum exposure to the concept.
Reflection
Throughout the completion of this lab, our group worked together to score and interpret
scores from a standardized early childhood assessment called the MacArthur Communicative
Development Inventory: Words and Sentences (CDI). This lab allowed us to familiarize
ourselves with the variety of standardized instruments. There are many different ways to assess
children, so we found it very beneficial to learn more about this way of assessing children, and
learning how to interpret childrens reports from formal assessments. Knowing how to complete
this lab will help us in the future when describing children's assessment scores to parents, as it is
laid out through charts, making it easy to communicate and understand. Our group got together
on different occasions to work on this lab together. We worked on our lab through a google doc,
allowing each group member to see the lab report, and add to it. We each calculated the initial
scores and percentiles on our own so we could compare our calculations to make sure we all got
the same answers. Once we settled on our data, we worked together to design our data tables, and
Appendix
References
guide and technical manual. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Pub. Co.
th
Mindes, G., & Jung, L. A. (2015). Assessing Young Children, 5 Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson.