Receptive language processing of Down's syndrome children

A group of Down's syndrome children was tested on the Token Test for Children (Di Simoni, 1978), and their scores were compared with those of a group of retarded children with other conditions, matched on PPVT score and CA, and a group of non-retarded children, matched on PPVT score. It was found that the Down's syndrome children were significantly poorer than the non-Down's syndrome children on those parts of the test requiring sequential or syntactic processing, while they showed no deficits in performing tasks requiring spatial/simultaneous processing. Both groups of retarded children generally performed more poorly than the non-retarded children. The results were discussed in terms of the language development of Down's syndrome children, given a possible right hemisphere dominance for language processing.