Developing a General Outcome Measure of Growth in the Expressive Communication of Infants and Toddlers

Proficiency in expressive communication is an important outcome in early childhood necessary for cognitive and social development. The development of an experimental measure for assessing growth in expressive communication in children from birth to 3 years of age is described. The measure was developed using general outcome measurement (GOM) procedures (Deno, 1997; Fuchs & Deno, 1991). GOMs are uniquely appropriate for use in the identification of children having difficulty acquiring a socially valid outcome, such as expressive communication, and evaluating the effectiveness of interventions for these children. Results from a sample of 25 infants and toddlers assessed once in Study I demonstrated the development and feasibility of these measures. Results from a sample of 50 infants and toddlers assessed monthly for 9 months in Study II indicated that the measure displayed adequate psychometric properties of reliability and validity and was sensitive to growth over time. Implications for practice are discussed.