Sanoudaki Eirini, Varlokosta Spyridoula
School of Linguistics and English Language, Bangor University, Bangor, UK.
Int J Lang Commun Disord. 2015 Mar-Apr;50(2):176-86. doi: 10.1111/1460-6984.12122. Epub 2014 Sep 2.
A number of studies have suggested that language in individuals with Down syndrome (DS) may not be simply delayed compared with language in typically developing (TD) children, but deviant. The deviance has been detected in the comprehension of pronouns, and it has triggered proposals for the existence of a specific syntactic deficit in individuals with DS. However, the developmental path of pronoun comprehension in individuals with DS is unknown as there are no studies examining individuals of different ages.
To perform a pilot study examining pronoun comprehension in adolescents and adults with DS in comparison with TD children. Research questions include: Are some pronoun types more difficult than others for each of the two groups (DS and TD)? Is there a difference in performance between the two groups? Does performance correlate with chronological age in the DS group?
METHODS & PROCEDURES: Using a manual picture selection task, we examined the comprehension of different types of pronouns in 14 Greek-speaking individuals with DS, ranging from 10 to 34 years of age. We also tested a control group of TD children as well as a typical adult group. The TD and DS groups were recruited and tested in pre-schools and schools/centres for individuals with learning disabilities, respectively. Within- and between-group comparisons were performed for all conditions. For the DS group, correlations between chronological age and performance in each condition were also explored.
OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Results reveal a significant positive correlation of age with performance in the DS group, but only in structures that also presented difficulties to TD children. Structures that presented difficulties only to individuals with DS do not appear to be less problematic for older participants.
CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: These findings provide support to the deviance hypothesis by suggesting that the syntactic deficit in the comprehension of pronouns in individuals with DS is present in individuals of a wide age range. At the same time, the results, if corroborated by large-scale studies, suggest that some aspects of grammatical development in individuals with DS may continue even after adolescence and well into adulthood. We argue that these findings can contribute towards more targeted intervention practices by increasing our knowledge of the behavioural phenotype of DS.
多项研究表明，与正常发育（TD）儿童的语言相比，唐氏综合征（DS）患者的语言可能并非简单地延迟，而是存在偏差。这种偏差已在代词理解方面被检测到，并且引发了关于DS患者存在特定句法缺陷的提议。然而，由于没有针对不同年龄段个体的研究，DS患者代词理解的发展路径尚不清楚。
进行一项试点研究，比较患有DS的青少年和成年人与TD儿童在代词理解方面的情况。研究问题包括：对于两组（DS组和TD组）而言，某些代词类型是否比其他类型更难理解？两组之间的表现是否存在差异？DS组的表现与实际年龄是否相关？
我们使用手动图片选择任务，研究了14名年龄在10至34岁之间、讲希腊语的DS患者对不同类型代词的理解。我们还测试了一个TD儿童对照组以及一个正常成年人组。TD组和DS组分别在幼儿园和学习障碍者学校/中心招募并进行测试。对所有条件进行组内和组间比较。对于DS组，还探讨了实际年龄与各条件下表现之间的相关性。
结果显示，DS组中年龄与表现存在显著正相关，但仅在那些也给TD儿童带来困难的结构中如此。仅给DS患者带来困难的结构，对于年龄较大的参与者而言，问题似乎并未减少。
这些发现为偏差假说提供了支持，表明DS患者在代词理解方面的句法缺陷在广泛年龄范围内的个体中都存在。同时，如果大规模研究证实这些结果，那么这表明DS患者语法发展的某些方面甚至在青春期后仍可能持续，并一直持续到成年期。我们认为，这些发现可以通过增加我们对DS行为表型的了解，为更有针对性的干预措施做出贡献。
