Receptive vocabulary development of infants and toddlers who are deaf or hard of hearing

Receptive vocabulary scores on the Words and Gestures subtest of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) were examined for a group of 8- to 22-month-old infants and toddlers with hearing loss. Results of analyses demon strated significant correlations between the children's receptive vocabulary scores and other CDI language subscales, as well as other measures of language, aspects of nonverbal cognition, and an assessment of symbolic play skills. Demographic variables of the sample (including gender, mode of communication, age of identification, disability status, ethnicity, level of maternal education, and degree of hearing loss) were found not to be significantly correlated with children's receptive vocabulary scores. Normative data for receptive vocabulary development based on the CDI ape presented so that 8- to 22-month-old deaf or hard of hearing children with heaving parents can be compared with their peers.