Qualitative aspects of productive vocabulary at the 200- and 500-word stages: A comparison between spontaneous speech and parental report data

This paper compares the proportions of different word classes present in 30 Italian children at two specific stages of vocabulary development (200 and 500 words). The Italian version of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory and spontaneous speech samples produced during an observation session were both used to examine the extent to which these children produce quantitatively different vocabulary compositions. Both methods revealed a greater presence of nouns than other word classes in the sample studied, although significant differences were found in the noun/other word class proportions.