Table Of ContentJournal of Early Intervention
http://jei.sagepub.com
Testing Predictive Validity of the Communication Composite of the Communication
and Symbolic Behavior Scales
Rebecca B. McCathren, Paul J. Yoder and Steven F. Warren
Journal of Early Intervention 2000; 23; 36
DOI: 10.1177/10538151000230010801
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JournalofEarlyIntervention,2000
Vol.23,No.1,36–46
Copyright2000bytheDivisionofEarlyChildhood,CouncilforExceptionalChildren
Testing Predictive Validity of the
Communication Composite of the
Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales
REBECCA B. MCCATHREN
University of Missouri
PAUL J. YODER
Vanderbilt University
STEVEN F. WARREN
University of Kansas
This study tested the predictive validity of the Communication Composite of the Communication
and Symbolic Behavior Scales as a predictor of expressive vocabulary. The Communication
Composite consists of six clusters that measure specific aspects of communicative behavior.
Participants were 58 children, 17 to 34 months of age, who were functioning at the
prelinguistic stage of language development. All children had mild to moderate developmental
delays but no sensory impairments. The Communication Composite was used to measure
prelinguistic communication skills at the beginning of the study, and an unstructured play
session was used to measure expressive vocabulary 1 year later. Results indicated that the
Communication Composite was a significant predictor of later expressive language. In addition,
all tested clusters were significant predictors of later expressive language.
Early identification of language delays and cisions about intervention services are often
disorders is unquestionably important. Lan- based on assessments, and using instruments
guage delays and disorders can resultinlong- with low predictive validity is likely to result
term negative effects on peer relationships in children receiving services they do not
(Baker & Cantwell, 1982), on behavioral and need, or being denied services they do need.
emotional development (Beitchman, Nair, This is particularly true in the area of com-
Clegg, Ferguson, & Patel, 1986), and on municationbecauseitaffectssocial,cognitive,
school achievement (Silva, Williams, & and academic achievement.
McGee, 1987). Unfortunately,anhistoriclack Developing valid prelinguistic assessments
of valid and reliable communication assess- poses many difficulties. For example, identi-
ments for young children has resulted in lan- fying communicative behaviors that are pre-
guage delays and disorders often not being dictive of later language development is chal-
identifiedearly(McCathren,Warren,&Yoder, lenging. Developing measurement strategies
1996).Aninstrumentwithgoodpredictiveva- and assessment instruments that will motivate
lidity, that is, an assessment instrument that young children to engage in observable com-
canpredictsomefutureskillorability(ordis- munication behaviors presents another chal-
ability) is particularly relevant to the identifi- lenge, and a related concern is the need for
cation of children in need of early language valid and reliable measurement strategies. A
and communication intervention. Clinical de- new generation of communication assessment
36 JEI, 2000, 23:1
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instruments,however,isattemptingtoaddress CSBS assigns Likert scores to all scales, re-
these problems. ducing the raw score variability betweenchil-
Inthisstudy,wetestedthepredictivevalid- dren. For example, in the Communicative
ity of Cluster scores and the Communication Functions cluster, a child who uses joint at-
Composite score of the Communication and tention 19 times in a session is assigned a 4
Symbolic Behavior Scales (CSBS; Wetherby on the Likert scale, and the same score given
& Prizant, 1993) as a predictor of later ex- to a child who uses joint attention 51 times.
pressive vocabulary for a group of toddlers Although it is unclear whether the difference
with developmental delays. The CSBS is not between 19 and 51 is clinically meaningful,
a screening instrumentused withlargegroups such use of the Likert scale may mask differ-
of children, but an assessment instrumentthat ences in performance that are necessary for
provides detailed information about the com- accurate prediction.
municationskillsofayoungchild.Westudied Asecondpotentialmeasurementproblemis
children with developmental delay because the use of behavior frequencies instead of
they are a very important clinical population rates. A frequency represents only a count of
for which the CSBS is intended. We selected how many times a behavior occurs in a par-
the CSBS because it measures early commu- ticular context. Frequency, however, does not
nication in a complex and thorough way. consider amount of time. Rate, on the other
The CSBS is an assessment instrument de- hand,considersthefrequencyofbehaviorand
signedtobeadministeredbytrainedclinicians within a time unit (e.g. rate (cid:1) frequency di-
to children from 8 to 30 months of age. The vided by unit of time). For example, in our
CSBS measures young children’s communi- sample,theassessmentforsomechildrentook
cation skills during a set of interactions with nearly30minuteswhileforothersittookonly
adults and objects that allow a range of be- 11 minutes. Using only rate as the measure,
haviors to be elicited and coded. This method thechildwhousedathreepointgaze10times
of assessment allows a much more complex in 11 minutes received the same score as the
analysis of the children’s communicationthan child who used a three point gaze 10 times in
checklist type assessments (e.g. Hawaii Early 25 minutes. It is unclear, however, whether
Learning Profile, Parks et al., 1984; Recep- both children demonstrated the same level of
tive-Expressive Emergent Language Scale, skill. Theoretically, the CSBS protocol struc-
Bzoch & League, 1978). The Communication tures the adult behavior so that each child is
Composite of the CSBS is derived from a se- offered the same number of responseeliciting
ries of situations designed to elicit jointatten- situations. If true, a constant number of op-
tion (usually in the form of comments), be- portunities to respond may be moreimportant
havior regulation (usually in the form of re- than the amount of time the child takes to re-
quests), and social interaction during games. spond. The opportunities for some of the
TheCommunicationCompositescoreismade scored behaviors, however, are not clear (e.g.
up of six cluster scores: Communicative positive affect and gaze shift).
Means-Vocal, Communicative Means-Gestur- A third potential problem is the inclusion
al, Communicative Means-Verbal, Social-Af- of scales that may not actually be valid pre-
fective Signaling, Reciprocity, and Commu- dictors of later language development. Al-
nicative Functions. Each cluster is composed though the Communication Composite in-
of three or four scales that measureaspectsof cludes scales found to predict later language
the relevant behavior. (See the Appendix for (e.g., frequency of behavior regulation and
a list of the clusters and scales.) joint attention, Mundy, Kasari, Sigman, &
Ruskin, 1995; consonant use, Whitehurst,
Measurement Issues Smith, Fischel, Arnold, & Lonigan, 1991), it
On the face of it, there could be some prob- alsoincludesscalesthatlackempricalsupport
lems with the metric used by the CSBS to as predictors of later language development
represent communicative behaviors. First, the (e.g., sociability of communicative functions,
McCathren, Yoder, & Warren 37
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distribution.
isolated gestures, and episodes of positive af- tionfor6months.Follow-uptestingwasdone
fect). Perhaps including scales that are not 6 months after the end of intervention, or 12
predictive with scales that are predictive months after the initial testing.
weakens the predictive validity of the Com- In the one-to-one treatment, a trainer
munication Composite score. workedwithachild,utilizingmilieulanguage
Noresearchhasyetestablishedwhetherthe teaching strategies to teach clear prelinguistic
Communication Composite, or any of the communication skills (Warren, Yoder, Gaz-
clusters, predicts later language development. dag, Kim, & Jones, 1993). The strategies in-
It is possible that measuring communication cluded following the child’s lead, imitating
development in various ways and creating an and expanding vocalizations and play, and
aggregate score, as the CSBS does, is more modeling and prompting desired behaviors
predictive of developmental outcome than fo- (i.e., conventionalgestures,coordinatedatten-
cusing on one aspect of the communication tion, vocalizations to the adult).
domain. It is also possible thatpotentialprob- The one-to-one treatment contrasted with
lems with the CSBS summary measures im- the play group condition which consisted of
pede the effectiveness of the clusters or the one adult and three children. In the play
Communication Composite as predictors. group, the adult was responsive to children’s
The purpose of this study was to determine communication and behavior, followed chil-
if the Communication Composite score, or dren’sleads,andcommentedonthechildren’s
any of the six cluster scores that contribute to play. The adult, however, did not imitate vo-
thecompositescore,arepredictiveoflaterex- calizations or actions, or specifically prompt
pressive vocabulary for young children with prelinguistic communication behaviors.
developmental delay. Three specific research Because the results of the present investi-
questions were addressed. First, is the CSBS gationcouldhavebeeninfluencedbydifferent
Communication Composite score positively treatments the children experienced in the
correlated with later expressive vocabulary in larger experiment, we tested the interactions
toddlers with developmental delay? Second, between group assignment and predictor var-
are any of the six clusters (Communicative iablesusedinthepresentstudy.First,wetest-
Means-Gesture, Communicative Means-Vo- ed whethertherelationshipbetweentheCom-
cal,CommunicativeMeans-Verbal,Social-Af- municationCompositescoresortheindividual
fective, Reciprocity, or Communicative Func- cluster scores from the CSBS and later ex-
tions) positively correlated with later expres- pressive language was different between
sive vocabulary?And,third,doesthedeletion groups. Second, we tested to see iftherewere
of non-predictive clusters significantly im- group differences on the Communication
prove the correlation between the Communi- Compositescore,theindividualclusterscores,
cation Composite and expressive vocabulary? or rate of expressive vocabulary. No differ-
ences between the groups on the variables of
METHOD interest were found and the relationships of
interest were not statistically significantlydif-
Participants ferent between groups. Thus, the analyses
The participants in this study were part of a usedforthepresentstudytreatthechildrenas
longitudinal intervention study being con- one group.
ducted by the second and third authors.Inthe Participants were 58 children, 34 boys and
larger study, the effects of two models ofpre- 24 girls, 17 to 34 months of age (M (cid:1) 22.6,
linguistic communication intervention were SD (cid:1) 4) who were enrolled in community
compared. Children were randomly assigned based early intervention programs. Of the 58
to either a one-to-one intervention or a group children, 24 were African American, 31 were
intervention. Both treatments were conducted Caucasian,and3wereidentifiedbytheirfam-
4 days a week, for 20 minutes, in the child’s iliesasother.ThechildrenhadBayleyMental
school. Children participated in the interven- Development Indices (MDI; Bayley, 1969,
38 JEI, 2000, 23:1
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1993) ranging from 35–85 (M (cid:1) 54.3, SD (cid:1) reportedbyStevensandCho.Oursamplewas
13.5). The Bayley does not provide MDIsbe- skewed, however, making the median of 23
low 50, thus for children who scored below (range 10 to 80) a better descriptor of central
50, an estimated MDI was calculated by find- tendency than the mean. Educational level of
ingtheregressionequationateachageforthe participants’ head of household varied, 6 had
data provided in the Bayley manual and ex- a 7th to 9th grade education, 30 had a 10th to
tendingtheregressionline(seeNaglieri,1981 12th grade education, 20 attended college, and
for similar application). Children with esti- 2 attended graduate school.
mated MDIs below 35 were not included in
the study. In addition, each study participant Procedures
had to be observed demonstrating at leastone CSBS testing. Project staff were trained to
instanceofintentionalcommunicationpriorto give the CSBS. Training consisted of observ-
testing. ingtheadministrationoftheCSBSusingboth
None of the participants showed evidence the training tapes that accompany the assess-
of autism or sensory impairments,andallhad ment instrument, and previously trained pro-
the motoric ability to rotate their torsos while jectstaff.Inaddition,projectstaffparticipated
engaged in object play. Of the 58 children in in practice sessions conducted with children
the study, 4 had Down syndrome, 4 werepre- in the targeted age range who were not study
mature births with medical complications, 3 participants. Practice sessions were video-
were diagnosed ‘‘failure to thrive,’’ and 2 taped and feedback was given by more ex-
were diagnosed with Pervasive Developmen- perienced staff members. All testing sessions
tal Disorder. In addition, 6 childrenwereeach also were videotaped and the camera person
diagnosed with one of the following condi- doubled as an on-line coach. In addition, all
tions: macroencephaly, microencephaly, testing sessions were coded and any discrep-
Duane’s syndrome, neonatal meningitis, Fetal ancies in administration were noted, dis-
Alcohol Syndrome, and tuberous sclerosis. cussed, and resolved.
The remaining 39 had no identifiableetiology The measures for this study were derived
or diagnosis other than developmental delay. from two testing sessions, one at the begin-
Atthebeginningofthestudy,childrenwere ning of the study and a second session 1 year
observed to have fewer than threeproductive, later. Testing was done at each child’s school
non-imitative words in their vocabulary.Each site. The Communication Composite section
child’s expressive vocabulary was estimated of theCSBStakesabout30minutesorlessto
using data from the initial CSBS testing ses- administer. Although the test manual encour-
sion and teacher report. During the initial ages the use of parents in the assessment ses-
CSBS testing, 7 out of the 58 children used a sion, we used a staff member who was famil-
total of five different words (mama, bye-bye, iar with the child, rather than the child’s par-
no, baby, and uh-oh). Two of the seven chil- ent. We chose to exclude the parent from the
dren spoke two words and the other five chil- procedure because we wanted to reduce be-
dren each spoke just one word. The number tween child differences in the extent to which
of words and rate of words at the beginning the parent interacted with the child during the
of the study were skewed,makingthemedian test session. There is strong evidence that
a better statistic for central tendency than the adult-child interaction style influences chil-
mean and standard deviation. The median dren’s immediate performance on many pre-
number of words was 0 (range 0–2). linguistic and linguistic measures (Lewy &
To assign socioeconomic status scores to Dawson, 1992). In addition, activities in the
families,weusedtheoccupationalstatusscore CSBS were selected to elicit communication
developed by Stevens and Cho (1985). For fromyoungchildrenthroughengagementwith
our sample, the occupational status score, interesting objects. The child sat in a safety
which is based on occupation,waslowerthan seat at the end of the table facing the video
the mean national score of 34.5 (SD (cid:1) 18.0) camera. The adult sat across fromthechildor
McCathren, Yoder, & Warren 39
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on the child’s left so the video camera could at any or all of the books for a 5 minutes
clearly capture the faces of both the adult and testing period. The adult is to respond to the
child. child’s communications without directing or
The Communicative Composite consists of questioning the child.
two sections: Communicative Temptations
and Sharing Books. The Communication Play Session
Temptations are seven situations designed to To measure children’s expressive vocabulary,
elicitcommentsandrequestsfromyoungchil- 15minute,one-to-oneplaysessionswithafa-
dren.Forexample,inthefirstCommunicative miliar staff member were conducted. All play
Temptation the adult winds up a small walk- sessions occurred 1 year after the pre-inter-
ing toy and puts it on the table within the vention CSBS testing. Toys used during the
child’sreach.Whenitstopswalking,theadult play sessions were typical of toys found in
waits for the child to request the toy walk early childhood settings and included: a baby
again and then rewinds the toy. If the child doll, 2 baby bottles, a baby spoon, doll hair-
does not communicate, the adult implements brush, rattle, blanket, teapot with 2 cups and
a prompting procedure to elicit a response. saucers, 4 colored cylindrical sticks, a large
First the adult simply asks, ‘‘Need help?’’ If pink car, and a toy telephone. Duringtheplay
this does not prompt a child communication, session, the adult could imitate what thechild
the adult holds an open palm 12 inches from was doing and comment ontheplay,however
the toy and asks again, ‘‘Need help?’’ If the they were to avoid modeling higher levels of
child still does not respond, the adult moves play. For example, if the child picked up the
his or her open palm closer to the toy (about sticks and started banging on the table the
3 inches) and repeats the question ‘‘Need adult would bang on the table with the other
help?’’ If the child continues to not respond, sticks and say, ‘‘We’re banging on thetable.’’
the adult picks up the toy and repeats the ini- Likewise, if the child put the bottle in the
tial action of winding the toy and putting it doll’s mouth the adult might say, ‘‘The baby
on the table within child’s reach. The se- is hungry. She wants to eat.’’ Each play ses-
quence of eliciting a communication request sion was videotaped for later coding. The
is repeated up to five times. On the first, sec- child sat in a safety seat across fromtheadult
ond,andfifthattempt,theadultcomplieswith or on the adult’s right so the face of both the
the request and reactivates the toy, but on the child and adult was visible.
third and fourth request, the adult does not
immediately comply but rather comments or Outcome Variable: Expressive
labels the toy and sets it down without reac- Vocabulary
tivating it, and awaits a request. When the Theoutcome measure,expressivevocabulary,
child communicates again, the adult activates wasquantifiedasthenumberofdifferentnon-
the toy and then puts it away when it winds imitativewordsusedintheplaysession.Non-
down. This procedure of complying with the imitative was defined as a word used by the
first, second, and fifth request, but not the child that was not in the adult’s previous ut-
third and fourth request is repeated in each of terance. Adult pronunciations or approxima-
the temptation situations. Materials used for tions of an adult pronunciation were included
other temptations are balloons, bubbles, blan- in this measure. Approximation was defined
ket for peek-a-boo, blocks and a box, and a as vocalizations having the same number of
jar with cereal. In situations designed to elicit syllablesandatleastonephonemeincommon
comments, the adult pauses and waits to see withtheadultpronunciation.Inaddition,there
if the child comments. If the child does not, must have been nonlinguistic support for de-
the adult continues with the test but does not termining the child was saying a word (i.e.
provide a specific prompt. child said ‘‘baby’’ while pointing to the doll).
In the Sharing Books section, the child is Words with an -ie (horsie) or -y (doggy) and
offered 4 books. The child selects and looks words that are commonly shortened byyoung
40 JEI, 2000, 23:1
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distribution.
Table 1. Table 2.
Reliability Coefficients Means and Standard Deviations for CSBS
Variables
Variable g-Coefficient
Mean SD
Communicative Means—Gesture .92
Communicative Means—Vocal .96 Communicative Means—Gesture 7.1 2.6
Communicative Functions .95 Communicative Means—Vocal 11.0 2.1
Reciprocity .92 Communicative Functions 8.6 1.8
Social-AffectiveSignaling .90 Reciprocity 7.9 1.7
Communication Composite .97 Social-AffectiveSignaling 7.6 2.0
Expressive Vocabulary .96 Communication Composite 47.3 7.8
children (e.g., ‘‘sketti’’ for spaghetti and
‘‘nana’’ for banana) also were included, how- cient would be 1. Conversely if the scores of
ever,ifachildsaidbothhorseandhorsiethey all the subjects were the same but the coders
were credited for only one word. Finally, scored them differently the g-coefficient
words had to be in the dictionary or on the would be 0. Mitchell has (1979) suggested an
list of symbolic sounds included in the Mac- acceptable range for g-coefficients is .5–.7.
Arthur Communication Development Inven- Thereliabilitycoefficientsforallvariablesin-
tory/Infants (Fenson et al., 1991). cluded in this study are shown in Table 1.
Coding RESULTS
Coding of the CSBS session consisted of two
separate passes through the data. On the first Preliminary analysis was doneonthedataus-
pass, communication acts were identified, as- ingthestepsrecommendedbyTabachnickand
signed a communicative function, and rele- Fidell (1989). According to their procedures,
vant aspects of each communication act was the outcome variable needed to be trans-
noted (e.g. presence of a vocalization or ges- formed. After a natural logarithmic transfor-
ture). A communication act was defined as a mation, no statistical assumptions were vio-
vocalization or gesture that was directed to- lated for the proposed analyses. For the sake
ward the adult (Wetherby & Prizant, 1993). of clarity, means and standard deviations are
The second pass through the data wastocode reported using the original scale.
the behaviors related to the Social-Affective Expressivevocabularywascalculatedatthe
Signaling cluster. end of the study. In the play session all but
11 children used words. The average number
Reliability of words used during the 15 minute session
Interobserver reliability for all variables was was11.3(range(cid:1)0–87;SD(cid:1)15.5).Because
calculated on 22% of the data. Reliability numberof words usedwaspositivelyskewed,
samples were randomly selected. Reliability the median number of words used (5.5) rep-
was reported using a generalizability or g-co- resents a better descriptor of central tendency
efficient (McWilliam & Ware, 1994). Unlike than mean and standard deviation. During the
other ways of calculating reliability, g-coeffi- 15minuteplaysession,themediannumberof
cients take into account more than one source words used was 5.5. Means and standard de-
of variability (Mitchell, 1979). G-coefficients viations of all CSBS variables included in the
approach 1 as the variance accounted for by analysis are listed in Table 2.
the subjects is large in comparison with the The first question asked if the Communi-
variance accounted for by coders (Kasari, cation Composite score was positively corre-
Freeman, Mundy, & Sigman, 1995). For ex- lated with later expressive vocabulary. The
ample, if there was variance among subjects Communication Composite was a significant
and no variance between coders the g-coeffi- predictor of later expressive vocabulary. The
McCathren, Yoder, & Warren 41
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distribution.
Table 3.
Correlations Between CSBS Scores and Later Expressive Vocabulary
Correlation p Value
Communicative Means—Gesture .355 p (cid:1) .003
Communicative Means—Vocal .387 p (cid:1) .001
Communicative Functions .365 p (cid:1) .002
Reciprocity .340 p (cid:1) .005
Social-AffectiveSignaling .283 p (cid:1) .016
Communication Composite .426 p (cid:1) .000
correlations between CSBS variables and ex- DISCUSSION
pressive vocabulary are presented in Table 3.
The second question asked which of the This study tested thepredictivevalidityofthe
clusters were predictive. We were unable to CSBS Communication Composite when at-
test the predictive validity of the Communi- tempting to predict later expressive vocabu-
cativeMeans-Verbalclusterbecausetherewas laryforchildrenwithdevelopmentaldelaysin
insufficient variance, however, all tested clus- the prelinguistic stage of communication de-
ters were positively correlated with later ex- velopment. The Communication Composite
pressive vocabulary. Communicative Means- did predict later expressive vocabulary, ac-
Vocal, Communicative Means-Gestural, Rec- counting for 18% of the variance.In addition,
iprocity, Social-Affective Signaling, and five of the six clusters; Communicative
Communicative Functions were all statistical- Means-Vocal, Communicative Means-Ges-
ly significant predictors. ture, Reciprocity, Social-Affective Signaling,
The final question asked if removing the and Communicative Functions were predic-
non-predictive clusters from the CSBS Com- tive. The sixth cluster, Communicative
munication Composite significantly improved Means-Verbal, was not tested. Because chil-
the correlation. Because all tested clusters dren in our sample were in the prelinguistic
were significantly correlated with expressive stage of development, and by definition, not
vocabulary, this analysis was not needed. yet talking, we did not expect the Communi-
Because MDI and mental age (MA) are of- cation Means-Verbal cluster to be predictive.
ten intercorrelated with communication and Thisstudyisimportantbecauseitisthefirst
other behavioral skills, we conducted corre- to report predictive validity using the CSBS.
lations to ensure our results were not simply It is especially important given that MA and
bi-products of age and IQ. Pearson product- MDI, two frequently used predictors of com-
moment correlations were used to determine munication, were not related to later expres-
the relationship between MDI and later ex- sivevocabularyforthisgroupofchildren.Be-
pressive vocabulary, and MA and later ex- cause assessment results determine who re-
pressive vocabulary. Neither relationship was ceives services, it is imperative that assess-
statistically significant (r (cid:1) .20, p (cid:1) .12; r (cid:1) ment instruments have predictive validity for
.07, p (cid:1) .59, respectively). the populations who are likely to be assessed.
A post-hoc analysis also was conducted to Thisstudyalsopresentsnewfindingstothe
determine if any predictive clusters added field. Before we discuss the results in detail,
unique variance when tested in a multiple re- however, we note two caveats. First, before
gressionwithexpressivevocabularyasthede- predictive validity can be fullyestablishedfor
pendentvariableandthepredictiveclustersas the CSBS further study, which includes other
the independent variables.Althoughtheequa- populations of children (e.g., typically devel-
tion was statistically significant,F(cid:1)2.9,p(cid:1) oping and children with autism), needs to be
.02,noneoftheclustersaddedsignificantlyto conducted.ItmaybethattheCSBShasstron-
the prediction. ger predictive validity for some groups of
42 JEI, 2000, 23:1
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distribution.
children than for others. Second, although risk’’ are relatively rare. However, using the
there were no group differences on the rela- Early Social-Communication Scales (ESCS;
tionships of interest, all children included in Seibert & Hogan, 1982), researchers tested
this study were part of an intervention study. prelinguistic communication skills to predict
Replications should be done with children language and IQ for young childrenwithlow
participating in different types of intervention birthweight (Ulvund & Smith, 1996). Both
programs. joint attention and behavior regulation were
In the introduction we raised three possible found to be predictive of both language and
problems related to the measurement strate- IQmeasured1,2,and4yearsaftertheESCS
gies used in the CSBS. First, the CSBS as- testing. Unlike our study, the mothers were
signs Likert scores to all scales, reducing the included in the testing session for the ESCS.
raw score variability between children. In our The magnitude of the significant correlations
study, all tested correlations were statistically in the Ulvund and Smith study ranged from
significant, thus use of Likert scores did not .19 to .37, while ours ranged from .27 to .43.
prevent us from finding the relationships in Thus,itappearsthatourexclusionofthepar-
the data. This is an important finding because ent in the testing session may not have had
becoming reliable on Likert scores is much a significant impact on the child’s commu-
easier,lesstimeconsuming,andthereforeless nication or on the amount of variance ac-
expensivethantryingtodevelopandmaintain counted for when predicting expressive vo-
reliability on the occurrence of eachbehavior. cabulary.
Having the Likert scores makes the CSBS a Many of the constructs included in the
more user friendly, cost-efficient instrument CSBS have support in the empirical literature
than it might appear, given the complexity of as predictors of expressive language for typi-
the behaviors that are being assessed. cally developing children and children with
A second potential problem, use of fre- disabilities. Both amount of vocalization and
quencies rather than rates in an assessment theuseofconsonantsintheprelinguisticcom-
that takes different amounts of time for dif- munication period are predictive of spoken
ferent children, was raised. Again, given that language (Camp, Burgess, Morgan, & Zerbe,
all the tested correlations were statistically 1987; Kagan, 1971; Menyuk, Liebergott, &
significant, this did not turn out to be a prob- Shultz,1986;Murphy,Menyuk,Liebergott,&
lem.Becausetheadult’sbehaviorisstructured Shultz, 1983; Roe, 1977; Stoel-Gammon,
(i.e., toys were offered a specific number of 1989; Whitehurst, Smith, Fischel, Arnold, &
times, adult responses to child requests were Lonigan, 1991). Use of pragmatic functions
prescribed), the amount of time the assess- hasbeenshowntopredictlaterexpressivelan-
ment takes may be of less importance. Some guagefortypicallydevelopingchildren(Mun-
children in our sample took twice as long as dy et al., 1995), children with Down syn-
others, however, we still found predictive re- drome (Mundy, Sigman, Kasari, & Yirmiya,
lationships. 1988; Smith & vonTetzchner, 1986) and chil-
The third potential problem we raised was dren with autism (Mundy, Sigman, & Kasari,
the inclusion of scales that may not be valid 1990). Children’s overall rate of communica-
predictors of later language development. Al- tion has also been shown to predict later ex-
though we did not test the predictive validity pressive vocabulary (McCathren, Yoder, &
of each scale, the clusters composed of those Warren, 1999). For some of the other clusters
scales did predict expressive vocabulary. If there is not empirical support, but the impor-
there were particular scales not predictive by tance of the behaviors is intuitively obvious.
themselves,theydidnotimpedethepredictive For example, scales that seem tobeimportant
validity of the clusters or of the Communi- in early communication, look at (a) how re-
cation Composite as a whole. sponsive the child is to adult communication,
Predictive validity studies using groups of (b) positive engagement with a communica-
children with disabilities or who may be ‘‘at- tive partner, and (c) how determined thechild
McCathren, Yoder, & Warren 43
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© 2000 Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized
distribution.
istogetacrossamessage.Research,however, J. S. (1991). Technical manual for the Mac-
Arthur developmental inventories. San Diego:
is needed to determine if these behaviors are
Singular Publishing Group.
predictive of some aspects of later communi-
Kagan,J.(1971).Changeandcontinuityininfancy.
cation.
New York: Wiley and Sons.
The CSBS manual provides scaled scores
Kasari, C., Freeman, S., Mundy, P., & Sigman, M.
and normed scores that can be used to meet
D. (1995). Attention regulation by children
state criteria for determining eligibility for
with Down syndrome: Coordinatedjointatten-
services. In addition, because the CSBS en- tion and social referencing looks. American
gages young children in interaction, theinfor- Journal on Mental retardation, 100(2), 128–
mationgatheredisusefulforidentifyingcom- 136.
munication goals and strategies for interven- Lewy, A. L., & Dawson, G. (1992). Social stimu-
lationandjointattentioninyoungautisticchil-
tion. This is important because many stan-
dren. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology,
dardized tests do not provide information that
20(6), 555–566.
is useful for program planning.
McCathren, R. B., Yoder, P. J., & Warren, S. F.
In conclusion, the CSBS is one of a new
(1999). Prelinguistic pragmatic functions as
generation of prelinguistic assessment instru- predictorsoflaterexpressivevocabulary.Jour-
ments that is much better than assessments nal of Early Intervention, 22(3), 205–216.
available even 10 years ago. Overall, the McCathren, R. B., Warren, S. F., & Yoder, P. J.
CommunicationCompositeandthefivetested (1996).Prelinguisticassessment.InK.Cole,P.
clusters of the CSBS were shown to be mod- Dale,&D.Thal(Eds.)Advancesinassessment
of communication and language. Baltimore:
erately powerful and valid predictors of later
Brookes.
expressive vocabulary. The CSBS Communi-
McWilliam, R. A. & Ware, W. B. (1994). The re-
cation Composite has great potential in iden-
liabilityofobservationsofyoungchildren’sen-
tifying,ininfancy,childrenwhowillbeatrisk gagement: An application of generalizability
forlanguageandcommunicationdisorderslat- theory. Journal of Early Intervention, 18(1),
er in childhood. 34–47.
Menyuk, P., Liebergott, J., & Schultz, M. (1986).
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© 2000 Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized
distribution.
