An investigation into differences in early childhood development
Variability in Early Communicative Development
demonstrates that the "modal child" does not, in fact, exist. Interviews with parents of over 1,800 children reveals both typical and exceptional communication development between the ages of eight and 30 months, providing unusually specific detail on the variability of individual lexical, gestural, and grammatical skills. Discussion of the Macarthur Communicative Development Inventories delves into the inventory's reliability, validity, and interrelations, before moving into an examination of the stability of differences and individual contributing factors.