MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories
IRMIK: Polish adaptation of the MB-CDI
The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI) are parent-report instruments, widely used in both research and clinical settings, for assessing early language development in children up to four years of age. Inwentarze Rozwoju Mowy i Komunikacji (IRMIK) are the Polish adaptations of the CDI, developed for use with children acquiring Polish. They are not simple translations but are constructed to reflect the vocabulary and communicative patterns typical of the language and culture
Like other CDI versions, IRMIKs ask caregivers to indicate, within a structured inventory of early words—extended to gestures in younger children and to more complex linguistic constructions in older children—those that the child uses or understands. This provides a simple and relatively quick way to assess language and communicative development without requiring the child’s direct participation, which helps avoid many of the practical challenges of testing very young children (e.g. establishing rapport, maintaining attention).
IRMIKs are also available in an electronic format, allowing them to be completed online.
Age versions available in Polish
- IRMIK: Słowa i Gesty (IRMIK:SIG; CDI Words & Gestures), developed by Prof. Magdalena Smoczyńska, is intended for parents and caregivers of children aged 8 to 18 months. For each word on the list, the caregiver indicates whether the child understands it and whether they already produce it. The questionnaire also includes a list of gestures and actions typical of young children, and several additional questions, e.g., about the earliest signs of comprehension or the tendency to repeat heard words or utterances.
- IRMIK: Słowa i Zdania (IRMIK:SIZ; CDI Words & Sentences), developed by Prof. Magdalena Smoczyńska, is intended for parents and caregivers of children aged 18 to 36 months. In this version, the word list is considerably longer and caregivers are asked only about spontaneous production, not comprehension. It also includes an important question about whether the child already started combining words and gives the possibility to provide examples of such multi-word utterances.
At MultiLADA, we are currently working on a new grammar section of IRMIK:SIZ, which—following similar sections in other language adaptations—will include questions about grammatical development, designed to be simple and accessible for caregivers.
- Krótki IRMIK (KIRMIK; Short CDI), developed by Dr Grzegorz Krajewski and Prof. Magdalena Smoczyńska, provides a quick way to assess language development in children aged 24 to 36 months. It includes only a selection of the most informative items from the IRMIK:SIZ word list and is available in two equivalent versions (A and B), which makes it possible to reuse the questionnaire within a short period without concerns about practice effects.
- IRMIK-III (CDI-III), developed by the MultiLADA team under the direction of Dr Grzegorz Krajewski, is intended for children aged 34 to 48 months. The word list in this version is considerably shorter, as it is designed to provide a representative sample of vocabulary typical for this age rather than a comprehensive inventory. In contrast, the grammatical section is more extensive.
Download IRMIKs
IRMIK:SIG
IRMIK:SIZ
KIRMIK-A
KIRMIK-B
More IRMIK developments
Adaptive mode
At MultiLADA, we have also developed an adaptive mode for IRMIKs (CAT-CDI). As their name suggests, the original IRMIKs are inventories: they contain long and exhaustive word lists, and completing them can be time-consuming and sometimes unnecessarily frustrating for caregivers. If the goal is simply a quick assessment of a child’s language development, rather than a precise estimate of their vocabulary, there is no need to present the full list of items (SIG — 480; SIZ — 670). Why ask about a word like “some” if the child does not yet say “mummy”? And if a child already uses a word like “some,” it is unlikely that we still need to ask whether they say “mummy.” In adaptive mode, the algorithm selects subsequent items based on the caregiver’s previous responses. As a result, it may be sufficient to ask about only a few dozen items instead of several hundred.
Online assessment platform
IRMIK questionnaires will soon be available to practitioners (e.g. speech and language therapists, psychologists) via the online assessment platform Mowa dzieci (mowadzieci.uw.edu.pl). Authorised users will be able to easily invite parents, by sharing a dedicated link, to complete a selected version of IRMIK online, together with additional questions on the child’s development, language environment, and basic demographic information. Parents will then be able to complete the questionnaire conveniently on their phone or computer. The platform will store individual responses as well as summary scores and will calculate results in accordance with normative data. The Polish version of the CLT will also be available on the platform in a similar way.