The Hebrew Communicative Development Inventory: language specific properties and cross-linguistic generalizations

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Linguistics
• Psychometrics

Background:

• The MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (MCDI) are widely used to assess infant and toddler language development.
• Adapting instruments like the MCDI for different languages and cultures is crucial for cross-linguistic research.
• Previous research has established patterns of early language acquisition in English-speaking populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To create a Hebrew adaptation of the MCDI, named the HCDI.
• To evaluate the reliability and sensitivity of the HCDI for measuring Hebrew-speaking toddlers' lexical development and emergent grammar.
• To compare early language development patterns in Hebrew with those previously observed in English.

Main Methods:

• Developed the HCDI, incorporating cultural, linguistic, and developmental considerations.
• Administered the HCDI to a stratified sample of 253 Israeli mothers with toddlers aged 18 to 24 months.
• Analyzed Hebrew results and compared them with data from the original MCDI English-speaking sample.

Main Results:

• The HCDI demonstrated reliability and sensitivity in measuring lexical development and emergent grammar in Israeli toddlers.
• Vocabulary size and age showed a similar relationship in Hebrew and English-speaking toddlers.
• Growth curves for different word categories (nouns, predicate terms, closed-class words) relative to lexicon size were strikingly similar across both languages.

Conclusions:

• The HCDI is a valid tool for assessing early language development in Hebrew-speaking toddlers.
• Early lexical development in Hebrew and English follows remarkably similar patterns, despite significant typological differences between the languages.
• Using parallel measurement methods is essential for documenting cross-linguistic similarities in language acquisition.