Early intentional communication as a predictor of language development in young toddlers

Interrelations between various types of early intentional communi cation measures, and their relations to children's concurrent and subsequent language skills and maternal interactional sensitivity were studied in a sample of 111 mother-infant pairs. Intentional communication was assessed at 14 months of age using a composite of early actions and gestures derived from parental reports (MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories, MCDI), and measures of early joint attentional behaviours obtained via observations of parent-child play interaction. The sum of actions and gestures and the measures of joint attentional behaviours correlated significantly with each other suggesting that the …