Infants were followed longitudinally from 1;2 to 1;10. Parents maintained a journal of child's spoken words and, at 2-month intervals, completed representative checklist of words produced. Results suggest that the diary method is more effective during early emergence of language, and the representative checklist method is more effective late in…

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)