A longitudinal examination of early communicative development: Evidence from a parent-report questionnaire

The present research employed a longitudinal design to assess the verbal and nonverbal communicative abilities of a sample of 104 children, using two different parent-report instruments: the Questionnaire for Communication and Early Language (QCEL) development at 12, 16, and 20 months, and the Italian adaptation of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories: Words and Gestures at 23 months. The results supported and extended previous data about the validity of the QCEL, by showing that: (1) both verbal and non-verbal variables predicted the level of language development at 23 months; (2) children classified as at-risk with the QCEL had reduced vocabulary size and a lower number of sentences at 23 months; (3) early individual differences in the use of words and gestures were associated with later differences in linguistic abilities. It is concluded that the longitudinal use of the QCEL questionnaire can provide useful information about language development.