The use of nouns and verbs by children with Down syndrome in two different situations

To verify the use of nouns and verbs by children with Down syndrome and to compare this use between conditions of interaction with the mother and the Speech-language pathologist (SLP).

Participants were 21 children aged between 5 and 11 years, divided into three groups, according to chronological and mental age as established by the results of the Primary Tests of Nonverbal Intelligence. The speech sample was obtained through free interaction situations that were videotaped during session of 30 minutes and transcribed in specific protocols. The first 100 utterances from the first five minutes were used. The interval between each situation ranged from 7 to 15 days. T-test and analysis of variance were used for statistical analysis and the significance level adopted was of 5%.

More verbs than nouns were used in both conditions; however, a higher number of nouns were observed during the interaction with the SLP. The between-group comparison in the interaction with the SLP shows significant differences for verbs and nouns, but during the interaction with the mother, there was tendency for difference only for the verbs.

The data indicate the growing development on using of nouns and verbs according to the increase of age. There was a higher use of verbs when compared with nouns mainly in the condition of interaction with the SLP.