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Down syndrome. Effects on language development.

C Stoel-Gammon1

  • 1Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle.

ASHA
|September 1, 1990
PubMed
Summary

Language development in children with Down syndrome (DS) shows specific patterns. Production skills lag behind mental age, and syntax development is asynchronous with comprehension, challenging the "slow-but-normal" view.

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Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Linguistics
  • Genetics

Background:

  • Previous research characterized language development in children with Down syndrome (DS) as
  • slow-but-normal.
  • Recent investigations suggest a more complex profile of language acquisition in DS.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To delineate the specific characteristics of language development in children with Down syndrome (DS).
  • To challenge the outdated "slow-but-normal" model of language acquisition in DS.
  • To identify unique developmental trajectories in DS language.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of language production and comprehension skills in children with Down syndrome (DS).
  • Assessment of lexical and syntactic development, including Mean Length of Utterance (MLU).
  • Longitudinal observation of developmental patterns, noting asynchronous skill acquisition.

Main Results:

  • Language production in children with DS lags behind mental age expectations.
  • A significant number of children with DS exhibit a profile where language production skills do not match comprehension skills, an imbalance that increases with age.
  • Lexical and syntactic development are asynchronous, with syntax development lagging behind.
  • Syntactic development, measured by MLU, shows periods of rapid growth interspersed with extended plateaus.

Conclusions:

  • The traditional "slow-but-normal" characterization of language in children with Down syndrome (DS) is no longer accurate.
  • Language development in DS is characterized by specific, unique properties rather than a generalized delay.
  • Further research is needed to address the new questions raised by these findings regarding DS language acquisition.

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