Rates of Prelinguistic Communication and Early Symbol Use in Young Children With Down Syndrome: Using a...

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Speech-Language Pathology
• Genetics

Background:

• Children with Down syndrome (DS) experience delays in expressive communication.
• Limited current data exists on the rates of early communication skills (gestures, vocalizations, words) in young children with DS.
• Few studies offer a comprehensive, longitudinal view of early communication development across multiple skill domains.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide descriptive data on the rates of expressive communication skill use in young children with Down syndrome (DS) throughout early childhood.
• To analyze growth curves for key communication skills in children with DS.
• To compare communication development in children with DS to typically developing children.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal descriptive study design.
• Utilized the Individual Growth and Development Indicator-Early Communication Index to measure four key communication skill elements.
• Employed hierarchical linear modeling with data from 19 children with DS (aged 11-42 months) to generate growth curves and compare them to benchmark data.

Main Results:

• Children with DS demonstrated relative strengths in gesture use.
• A longer duration of vocalizations was observed in children with DS.
• Lower rates of growth were noted in single and multiple word combinations over time.
• Significant individual differences in communication parameters were observed among children with DS.

Conclusions:

• Interventions are needed to facilitate the transition from gesture use to spoken words in children with DS.
• Research should focus on developing strategies to support the emergence of early word combinations in this population.
• Early communication development in children with DS presents unique patterns requiring targeted support.