Asynchrony of lexical and morphosyntactic development in children with Down Syndrome

The aim of this study was to investigate the potential dissociation between mental age and specific aspects of language: lexical and morphosyntactic comprehension and production in different situations and with different measures. Fifteen children with Down Syndrome (DS) (from 4 to 7 years) and fifteen normal controls matched on mental age participated in this study. Children with DS showed generally a lower performance in language abilities with respect to the normal controls. In the two groups no dissociation was evident between lexical and cognitive abilities, but specific morphosyntactic difficulties emerged both in comprehension and production.