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Related Experiment Videos

Do children with Down syndrome have difficulty with argument structure?

Bernard G Grela1

  • 1Department of Communication Sciences, University of Connecticut, 850 Bolton Road, U-85, Storrs, CT 06269, USA. bgrela@uconn.edu

Journal of Communication Disorders
|July 3, 2003
PubMed
Summary

Children with Down syndrome (DS) show unique patterns in verb argument structure, omitting more subject arguments than direct objects. Typically developing children used more anomalous argument patterns, suggesting developmental differences in syntactic-semantic knowledge.

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Area of Science:

  • Linguistics
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Genetics

Background:

  • Children with Down syndrome (DS) often exhibit language delays.
  • Verb argument structure is crucial for sentence comprehension and production.
  • Understanding syntactic-semantic development in DS is vital for targeted interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare verb argument structure production in children with DS and typically developing children.
  • To investigate group differences in the omission and anomalous use of subject and direct object arguments.
  • To explore the relationship between syntactic difficulties and optional subject phenomena in DS.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of language transcripts from seven children with DS and seven typically developing children.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Comparison of subject argument production, direct object argument production, and anomalous argument use.
  • Statistical comparison of argument omission and anomaly rates between the two groups.

    • Main Results:

    • No significant group differences were found in the omission of subject arguments across verb categories.
    • Children with DS were more likely to omit subject arguments than direct object arguments for transitive verbs.
    • Typically developing children produced more anomalous argument patterns than children with DS.

    Conclusions:

    • Syntactic challenges in DS may delay the mastery of optional subject phenomena.
    • Higher anomaly rates in typically developing children suggest developing, but not fully consolidated, argument structure knowledge.
    • Findings highlight distinct developmental trajectories in verb argument structure acquisition between children with DS and their peers.