A preliminary study of speech discrimination in youth with Down syndrome

Few studies have examined the ability of individuals with learning disabilities, in general, or with Down syndrome, specifically, to discriminate speech. The purpose of this study was compare the speech discrimination abilities of eight children with Down syndrome (aged 5.7 to 12.8 years) to seven nonverbal mental-age matched controls (aged 4.0 to 5.3 years). A computer program presented the speech discrimination task using a two-cued alternative forced choice procedure. On each trial, the participants heard four successive synthesized speech syllables, with the first and last stimuli being the same and serving as the cue. The results indicated children with Down syndrome differed from their nonverbal mental-age matched peers in their ability to discriminate two of the five pairs, but not in the manner predicted. The relationship between speech discrimination, phonological memory, and speech-language development is also discussed.