The MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs) are a pair of widely usedparent-report instruments for assessing communicative skills in infants and toddlers. This reportdescribes short-form versions of the CDIs and their development, summarizes newly availablenormative data and psychometric properties of the instruments, and discusses research andclinical applications. The infant short form (Level I, for 8- to 18-month-olds) contains an89-word checklist for vocabulary comprehension and production. The two parallel versions ofthe toddler short form (Level II, Forms A and B, for 16- to 30-month-olds) each contain a100-word vocabulary production checklist and a question about word combinations. The formsmay also be useful with developmentally delayed children beyond the specified age ranges.Copies of the short forms and the normative tables appear in the appendices.
