scholarly journals Do Infants With Down Syndrome Show an Early Receptive Language Advantage?

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 585-598
Author(s):  
Emily Mason-Apps ◽  
Vesna Stojanovik ◽  
Carmel Houston-Price ◽  
Emily Seager ◽  
Sue Buckley
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Auditory Comprehension ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Time Points ◽  
Expressive Communication ◽  
Shed Light

Purpose The study explored longitudinally the course of vocabulary and general language development in a group of infants with Down syndrome (DS) compared to a group of typically developing (TD) infants matched on nonverbal mental ability (NVMA). Method We compared the vocabulary and general language trajectories of the two groups in two ways: (a) at three time points during a 12-month period and (b) at two time points when the groups had made equal progress in NVMA (a period of 6 months for the TD infants vs. 12 months for the infants with DS). Results The TD group had overtaken the DS group on all general language and vocabulary measures by the end of the 12-month period. However, expressive communication and expressive vocabulary were developing at the same rate and level in the two groups when examined over a period in which the two groups were matched in gains in NVMA. Furthermore, the infants with DS showed a receptive language advantage over the TD group; this group's auditory comprehension and receptive vocabulary scores were superior to those of the TD group at both time points when NVMA was accounted for. Conclusion The results shed light on the widely reported discrepancy between expressive and receptive language in individuals with DS. Although infants with DS appear to be developing language skills more slowly than chronological age TD peers, when NVMA is taken into account, infants with DS do not have expressive language delays, and they seem to show a receptive language advantage.

scholarly journals Differences and Similarities in Predictors of Expressive Vocabulary Development between Children with Down Syndrome and Young Typically Developing Children

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 312
Author(s):  
Kari-Anne B. Næss ◽  
Johanne Ostad ◽  
Egil Nygaard
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Motor Skills ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Auditory Memory ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Children With Down Syndrome ◽  
Oral Motor

The purpose of this study was to examine potential differences in the predictors of expressive vocabulary development between children with Down syndrome and typically developing children to support preparation for intervention development. An age cohort of 43 children with Down syndrome and 57 typically developing children with similar nonverbal mental age levels were assessed at three time points. Linear mixed models were used to investigate the predictors of expressive vocabulary over time. Both groups achieved progress in expressive vocabulary. The typically developing children had steeper growth than the children with Down syndrome (1.38 SD vs. 0.8 SD, p < 0.001). In both groups, receptive vocabulary, auditory memory, and the home literacy environment were significant predictors of development. In the children with Down syndrome, the phonological awareness and oral motor skills were also significant. Group comparisons showed that receptive vocabulary, auditory memory and oral motor skills were stronger predictors in the children with Down syndrome than in the typically developing children. These results indicate that children with Down syndrome are more vulnerable when it comes to risk factors that are known to influence expressive vocabulary than typically developing children. Children with Down syndrome therefore require early broad-based expressive vocabulary interventions.

scholarly journals Receptive and expressive language ability differentially scaffold symbolic understanding over time: picture comprehension in late talking and typically developing children

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachael W Cheung ◽  
Calum Hartley ◽  
Padraic Monaghan
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Social Ability ◽  
Verbal Labels ◽  
Symbolic Understanding ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Picture Comprehension

Symbols are a hallmark of human communication, and a key question is how children’s emerging language skills relate to their ability to comprehend symbols. In particular, receptive and expressive vocabulary may have related, but distinct roles across early development. In a longitudinal study of late talking (LT) and typically developing (TD) children, we differentiated the extent to which expressive and receptive language skills predicted symbolic understanding as reflected in picture comprehension, and how language skills inter-related with social skills. LT and TD children were tested on a picture comprehension task that manipulated the availability of verbal labels at 2.0 – 2.4 years and 3.5 – 3.9 years. While all children improved in accuracy over time as expected, TD children exhibited an advantage over LT children, despite both groups utilising verbal labels to inform their mapping of picture-object relationships. Receptive and expressive vocabulary also differed in their contribution at different ages: receptive vocabulary predicted performance at ~2-years-old, and expressive vocabulary predicted performance at ~3.5-years-old. Task performance at 3.5-years-old was predicted by earlier receptive vocabulary, but this effect was largely mediated by concurrent expressive vocabulary. Social ability across the whole sample at ~2-years-old also predicted and mediated the effect of receptive vocabulary on concurrent task performance. These findings suggest that LT children may have delays in developing picture comprehension over time, and also that social ability and language skills may differentially relate to symbolic understanding at key moments across development.

scholarly journals The Association between Difficulties with Speech Fluency and Language Skills in a National Age Cohort of Children with Down Syndrome

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 704
Author(s):  
Kari-Anne B. Næss ◽  
Egil Nygaard ◽  
Hilde Hofslundsengen ◽  
J. Scott Yaruss
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Exact Test ◽  
Children With Down Syndrome ◽  
Speech Fluency ◽  
Age Cohort ◽  
Student’S T

The present study (a) addressed difficulties in speech fluency in children with Down syndrome and typically developing children at a similar non-verbal level and (b) examined the association between difficulties with speech fluency and language skills in children with Down syndrome. Data from a cross-sectional parent survey that included questions about children’s difficulties with speech fluency, as well as clinical tests from a national age cohort of 43 six-year-olds with Down syndrome and 57 young typically developing children, were collected. Fisher’s exact test, Student’s t-test, linear regression, and density ellipse scatter plots were used for analysis. There was a significantly higher occurrence of parent-reported difficulties with speech fluency in the children with Down syndrome. Higher language scores were significantly associated with a lower degree of difficulties; this association was strongest for vocabulary and phonological skills. Although difficulties with speech fluency were not reported for all children with Down syndrome, a substantially higher occurrence of such difficulties was reported compared to that for typically developing children. The significant association between difficulties with speech fluency and the level of language functioning suggests that speech fluency and language skills should be taken into consideration when planning treatment for children with Down syndrome.

Phonological Awareness and Phonemic Perception in 4-Year-Old Children With Delayed Expressive Phonology Skills

2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 463-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Rvachew ◽  
Alyssa Ohberg ◽  
Meghann Grawburg ◽  
Joan Heyding
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Early Literacy ◽  
Emergent Literacy ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Vocabulary Skills ◽  
Literacy Knowledge ◽  
Age Appropriate ◽  
Expressive Phonology

The purpose of this study was to compare the phonological awareness abilities of 2 groups of 4-year-old children: one with normally developing speech and language skills and the other with moderately or severely delayed expressive phonological skills but age-appropriate receptive vocabulary skills. Each group received tests of articulation, receptive vocabulary, phonemic perception, early literacy, and phonological awareness skills. The groups were matched for receptive language skills, age, socioeconomic status, and emergent literacy knowledge. The children with expressive phonological delays demonstrated significantly poorer phonemic perception and phonological awareness skills than their normally developing peers. The results suggest that preschool children with delayed expressive phonological abilities should be screened for their phonological awareness skills even when their language skills are otherwise normally developing.

Abnormal fMRI Activation Pattern During Story Listening in Individuals With Down Syndrome

2009 ◽  
Vol 114 (5) ◽  
pp. 369-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Reynolds Losin ◽  
Susan M. Rivera ◽  
Elizabeth D. O'Hare ◽  
Elizabeth R. Sowell ◽  
Joseph D. Pinter
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Cingulate Gyrus ◽  
Activation Pattern ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Middle Temporal ◽  
Story Listening ◽  
Neural Underpinnings ◽  
Language Areas

Abstract Down syndrome is characterized by disproportionately severe impairments of speech and language, yet little is known about the neural underpinnings of these deficits. We compared fMRI activation patterns during passive story listening in 9 young adults with Down syndrome and 9 approximately age-matched, typically developing controls. The typically developing group exhibited greater activation than did the Down syndrome group in classical receptive language areas (superior and middle temporal gyri) for forward &gt; backward speech; the Down syndrome group exhibited greater activation in cingulate gyrus, superior and inferior parietal lobules, and precuneus for both forward speech &gt; rest and backward speech &gt; rest. The Down syndrome group showed almost no difference in activation patterns between the language (forward speech) and nonlanguage (backward speech) conditions.

Exploring Predictors of Expressive Grammar Across Different Assessment Tasks in Preschoolers With or Without DLD

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-121
Author(s):  
Marley Yarian ◽  
Karla N. Washington ◽  
Caroline E. Spencer ◽  
Jennifer Vannest ◽  
Kathryn Crowe
Keyword(s):  
Stepwise Regression ◽  
Expressive Language ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Assessment Tasks ◽  
Language Assessments ◽  
Parent Concern ◽  
Speech And Language Development

Predictors of expressive grammar were compared in formal and naturalistic assessment tasks for children with typically developing (TD) language and with Developmental Langauge Disorder (DLD). Standardized expressive language assessments were administered to 110 preschoolers. The parents of these children reported whether or not they were concerned about their child’s speech and language development. Stepwise regression analyses revealed receptive language as the only significant predictor of expressive grammar across assessment tasks. For TD preschoolers, receptive vocabulary and grammar accounted for expressive grammar performance in the formal task; however, only receptive grammar accounted for performance in the naturalistic task. For DLD preschoolers, only receptive vocabulary accounted for expressive grammar performance across both tasks. Nonverbal IQ and parent concern did not predict expressive grammar performance in either task. Implications for treatment of preschool DLD using relative strengths in vocabulary are discussed.

scholarly journals Lexical Phonological Networks in Children with Down Syndrome: An Initial Syllable Similarity Priming Task with an Eye-Tracking Method

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Ramos-Sanchez ◽  
Natalia Arias-Trejo
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Target Recognition ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Phonological Priming ◽  
Lexical Competition ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Phonological Representations ◽  
Priming Task ◽  
Phonological Similarities

Typically-developing (TD) infants as young as 24 months of age use phonological information to establish links between the words of their early lexicons (Mani & Plunkett, 2010; 2011), which facilitates word recognition and learning. However, Down syndrome (DS) children are reported to have difficulties in learning phonological representations (Jarrold & Thorn & Stephens, 2009). The present study aimed to evaluate if DS children establish lexical networks based on phonological similarity by exploring the effects of lexical competition in a phonological priming task. We evaluated 24 children with DS (mental verbal age; M= 40 months) and 24 children with TD (mental verbal age; M= 40 months), matched by receptive vocabulary size, with a phonological priming adaptation of the intermodal preferential looking task. Children with DS showed inhibition of target recognition in related trials compared to unrelated trials. Children with TD showed an absence of priming effects. Further analysis revealed a relationship between the prime cohort size and the level of inhibition of target recognition for both groups. Our results suggest children with DS possess sufficiently detailed phonological representations that allow them to efficiently cluster their lexical entries based on phonological similarities. Moreover, results are thought to reflect differences in the lexical competition processes between the TD and DS groups.

scholarly journals VALIDATION OF STANDARDIZED INSTRUMENTS IN EVALUATING SPEECH-LANGUAGE DISORDERS: A CHALLENGE FOR CROSS-CULTURAL SETTINGS

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Zahra Ibrahim
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Functional Performance ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Speech Language Pathologist ◽  
Mental Age ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Primary Assessment

Communication has a meaningful impact between clinician and client in order to comprehend each other's language for effective therapeutic recovery and health related outcomes1.Standardized tests are considered as one of the primary assessment tools used by a speech language pathologist to evaluate and diagnose child language impairment. Test is administered upon the child where functional performance and scores reveals either the typically developing language skills or if an in-depth evaluation is required in any of the language domains3. Making use of the data and analyzing the child's expressive/receptive language skills that lags behind when compared to norm referenced data; if the child is par their chronological age or below their mental age.

scholarly journals Αλληλοσυντονισμός της προσοχής και γλωσσική ανάπτυξη σε νήπια με σύνδρομο Down

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 468
Author(s):  
Χριστίνα Φ. Παπαηλιού ◽  
Νικήτας Ε. Πολεμικός ◽  
Ελένη Φρυσίρα ◽  
Αναστάσιος Κοντάκος ◽  
Μαρία Καΐλα ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Joint Attention ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Early Learning ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Communicative Behaviors

Many studies demonstrate that in typically developing (TD) children joint attention constitutes a prerequisite for language development. However, data on the development of joint attention and its relation to language development in Down syndrome (DS) are contradictory. The present study aims to examine joint attention in toddlers with DS as well as its association with language comprehension and production. Participants were 10 toddlers with DS (mean chronological age: 58 months) and 10 TD toddlers matched for language comprehension (mean chronological age: 32 months). Language Comprehension and language production were assessed using the Müllen Scales of Early Learning, expressive vocabulary was assessed using the Language Development Survey, and the communicative behaviors were assessed through observation of interactions with the mother in a semi-structured condition with toys. According to the findings, toddlers with DS exhibit significantly morejoint attention behaviors compared to TD toddlers. Moreover, it was shown that in toddlers with DS language production was significantly negatively correlated with initiating request gestures. Conclusively, it seems that in toddlers with DS the transition from pre-linguistic to linguistic period follows a similar developmental path as in TD toddlers, although a severe delay is observed.

Down Syndrome from a Neurodevelopmental Perspective

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hana D’Souza ◽  
Jamie Edgin ◽  
Annette Karmiloff-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Trisomy 21 ◽  
Genetic Disorder ◽  
Developmental Time ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Chromosome 21 ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Altered Expression ◽  
Wide Range

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology. Please check back later for the full article. Down syndrome (DS; trisomy 21) is the most common genetic disorder associated with intellectual disability. It occurs in one out of every 700 to 1,000 live births. DS is caused by trisomy of human chromosome 21, which results in the altered expression of over 300 genes. This neurodevelopmental syndrome is characterized by distinctive facial dysmorphology and an uneven cognitive phenotype including relative strengths and weaknesses. Relative strengths include visual processing, receptive vocabulary, and social-emotional functioning (though performance in these domains generally falls below the level expected for typically developing individuals). Relative weaknesses include verbal working memory, expressive language, and motor ability. However, the phenotype of individuals with DS is far from homogeneous, and a wide range of individual differences is present at every level of description. On the genetic level, the trisomy can occur through different mechanisms at distinct developmental time points, and the expression of trisomy 21 may be modulated by different genes across individuals. On the level of the brain, individual differences in brain structure and/or function correlate with variation in cognition and behavior, including communication skills. Large individual differences can also be observed on the cognitive level. For example, while some toddlers with DS are nonverbal, others reach expressive vocabulary levels close to those of typically developing children. A wide range of individual differences has also been reported in other areas, including the motor domain, sleep, parent-child interaction, and medical and psychiatric comorbidities. In order to understand a neurodevelopmental syndrome such as DS, it is crucial to consider individual variations at multiple levels of description and the interactions between them over developmental time. A more complex, dynamic view that goes beyond a description of DS as a homogenous group is thus required.

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