Fifty eight toddlers (17-34 months) with developmental delays participated in a 12
month longitudinal study to test the predictive
relationship between prelinguistic representational ability and later expressive
vocabulary. Two representational abilities were examined, vocabulary comprehension
and level of representational play. The MacArthur Communicative Developmental
Inventory/Infants (Fenson et al., 1991) was used to measure vocabulary comprehension
and a play scale adapted from McCune (1995) was used to
establish level of representational play. Expressive vocabulary was measured one year
later in a set of structured interactions with a familiar adult using the
Communication Composite of the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales (Wetherby
& Prizant, 1993). The results indicated that level of representational play was a significant predictor of later expressive
vocabulary but vocabulary comprehension was not.
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