Professionals can learn a great deal about young children's emerging language and communication skills by consulting the ones who know the children best: their parents or caregivers. CDIs and Inventarios At A Glance Age range covered: 8-30 months (may also be used with older children who have developmental delays) Areas screened: Language and communication skills Approximate time for the CDIs and the Inventarios: Each form generally takes 20-40 minutes to complete and 10-15 minutes to score CDI components: CDI: Words and Gestures, CDI: Words and Sentences, User's Guide and Technical Manual Inventarios components: Inventario I: Primeras Palabras y Gestos, Inventario II: Palabras y Enunciados, User's Guide and Technical Manual Who completes it: Parents or caregivers; professionals score Validity and reliability: Numerous studies document the reliability and the validity of the instruments. The CDIs were normed on approximately 1,800 children in three locations, and the Inventarios were normed on more than 2,000 children. Language: The CDIs are in English; the Inventarios are in Spanish Now, with the CDIs and their Spanish adaptation, the Inventarios, professionals can tap into parents' invaluable day-to-day knowledge - and respond to legislation that requires parental input in child evaluations. Top language researchers developed these standardized, parent-completed report forms - CDIs for English speakers, Inventarios for Spanish speakers - designing the forms to focus on current behaviors and salient emergent behaviors that parents can recognize and track. Both the CDIs and the Inventarios have three components: A "words and gestures" form. The CDI: Words and Gestures is for use with children ages 8-16 months, while Inventario I: Primeras Palabras y Gestos is for 8-18 months. In both the forms, the first part prompts parents to document the child's understanding of hundreds of early vocabulary items separated into semant