A validation study of five checklists for assessing two-year-olds' word production revealed that the lists produced comparable mean production scores, reflected age differences, and preserved individual differences in total production and in production of linguistic categories such as nouns, verbs, open class items, and closed class items.…

Analysis of data from studies investigating the effectiveness of a parent report form for assessing children's early language development showed that the vocabulary checklist had substantial validity, and that it helped parents to provide a valuable overall evaluation of their children's language at 20 months. (Author/CB)

Analysis of the free speech of one- to three-year-olds (N=21) found that measures of mean length of utterance (MLU) are positively related to age, are reliable, and can predict grammatical development, although there are identifiable points in the developmental evolution of MLU and MLU-like indices beyond which their reliability and validity have…