MCS – Age 5 – British Ability Scales II (BAS II) Naming Vocabulary

The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) assessed their cohort members (CMs) during the study’s age 5 sweep using the Naming Vocabulary measure from the British Ability Scales II (BAS II).

Details on this measure and the data collected from the CMs are outlined in the table below.

Year of data collection:	2006
Domain:	Verbal knowledge (expressive)
Measures:	Spoken vocabulary: Expressive language skills Vocabulary knowledge of nouns Ability to attach verbal labels to pictures General knowledge General language development Retrieval of names from long-term memory Level of language stimulation
CHC:	Gc (Crystallised ability)
CLOSER source:	Explore this sweep in CLOSER Discovery: MCS Age 5 Survey (2006)
Administrative method:	Home interviewer; face to face, CM gives verbal response and interviewer records on Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI).
Procedure:	The test items consisted of coloured pictures of objects shown one at a time and the cohort member was asked to name the object pictured. The interviewer showed the cohort member a picture in the BAS easel and asked “What is this?”. The cohort member responded verbally and the response was recorded by the interviewer on CAPI. The assessment stopped automatically if the cohort member made five consecutive errors – apart from at the beginning of the assessment, where if the cohort member made five consecutive errors, and had fewer than three correct answers, the assessment was routed to earlier items in the assessment, which were easier and contained additional teaching items.
	Duration: 4 – 5 minutes (from data)
Link to questionnaire:	https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/mcs3_cogphys.pdf (opens in new tab)
Scoring:	36 items (pictures of objects) in total. Started at item 12 and decision point at item 30 (the starting and decision points for children aged 5).
Item-level variable(s):	ccnsta00 (start point for test)
	ccndec00 (decision point for test)
	ccn12v00 – ccn30v00; ccn31v00 – ccn36v00; ccn01v00 – ccn11v00 (first attempt; items 12 – 30; 31 – 36; 1 – 11).
	ccn12p00 – ccn30p00; ccn31p00 – ccn36p00; ccn01p00 – ccn11p00 (probed; items 12 – 30, 31 – 36; 1-11)
Total score/derived variable(s):	ccnsco00 (raw score – total number of correct responses)
	ccnvabil (ability adjusted – total number of correct responses, accounting for the sets of items the CM was presented with, which depended on age and successful completion of blocks of items)
	ccnvtscore (ability and age adjusted on BAS II age normed data)
Age of participant (months):	Mean = 62.68, SD = 3.00, Range = 53 – 74
Descriptives:		ccnsco00	ccnvabil	ccnvtscore
		(raw score)	(ability adjusted)	(ability and age adjusted)
	N	15,168	15,168	15,168
	Range	0 – 25	10 – 170	20 – 80
	Mean	14.26	107.33	53.81
	SD	3.45	16.44	11.25
		(click image to enlarge)	(click image to enlarge)	(click image to enlarge)
Other sweep and/or cohort:	MCS (age 3): different starting point 1
	BCS70 (children of cohort member, multi-age)
	ALSPAC (age 2): similar task involving objects
Source:	Elliott, C. D., Smith, P., & McCulloch, K. (1996). British Ability Scales Second Edition (BAS II). Administration and Scoring Manual. London: Nelson.
	Elliott, C. D., Smith, P., & McCulloch, K. (1997). British Ability Scales Second Edition (BAS II). Technical Manual. London: Nelson.
Technical resources:	Connelly, R. (2013). Interpreting Test Scores. Millennium Cohort Study Data Note 2013/01. London: Centre for Longitudinal Studies.
Example articles:	Carson, C., Kelly, Y., Kurinczuk, J. J., Sacker, A., Redshaw, M., & Quigley, M. A. (2011). Effect of pregnancy planning and fertility treatment on cognitive outcomes in children at ages 3 and 5: longitudinal cohort study. BMJ, 343, d4473.
	Goodman, A., Gregg, P., & Washbrook, E. (2011). Children’s educational attainment and the aspirations, attitudes and behaviours of parents and children through childhood. Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, 2(1), 1-18.
	Law, J., Rush, R., Anandan, C., Cox, M., & Wood, R. (2012). Predicting language change between 3 and 5 years and its implications for early identification. Pediatrics, 130(1), e132-7.