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Inferential language use by youth with Down syndrome during narration
Shealyn A Ashby1, Marie Moore Channell1, Leonard Abbeduto2
1Department of Speech and Hearing Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 901 S. Sixth Street, Champaign, IL, 61820, USA.
Research in Developmental Disabilities
|October 17, 2017
Summary
Youth with Down syndrome (DS) use less inferential language in storytelling compared to typically developing (TD) peers and those with fragile X syndrome (FXS). Interventions should focus on inferential language and sentence structure for DS individuals.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Linguistics
- Genetics
Background:
- Inferential language is crucial for effective communication and social interaction.
- Down syndrome (DS) and fragile X syndrome (FXS) are genetic conditions that can impact cognitive and linguistic development.
- Previous research has highlighted language differences in DS and FXS, but direct comparisons of inferential language use are less common.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare inferential language use in narrative storytelling among youth with Down syndrome (DS), typically developing (TD) children, and peers with fragile X syndrome (FXS).
- To investigate potential syndrome-specific patterns of inferential language deficits in DS.
- To examine the role of expressive syntactic ability in these differences.
Main Methods:
- Participants included youth with DS, age- and nonverbal cognitive ability-matched TD children, and peers with FXS.
- Narrative storytelling samples were collected from all participants.
- Participants' narratives were systematically coded for the frequency and types of inferential language used.
Main Results:
- Youth with DS demonstrated significantly less overall use of inferential language compared to both TD children and peers with FXS.
- While mean utterance length influenced group differences between DS and TD groups, it did not fully account for the observed disparities.
- Specific patterns of inferential language use varied across different subtypes of inference and between the participant groups.
Conclusions:
- The findings suggest a potential syndrome-specific impairment in inferential language use associated with the Down syndrome phenotype.
- These deficits may be partially explained by differences in expressive syntactic abilities.
- Clinical interventions for individuals with DS should consider targeting the development of inferential language skills and complex sentence structures.