Maternal speech to prelinguistic children with Down syndrome.

The linguistic environment of prelinguistic children with Down syndrome who were cognitively ready to talk was investigated. Maternal speech to these children was compared to maternal speech to three groups of nonhandicapped children: one matched for level of linguistic development; one matched for MA, and one matched for CA. Mother and child participated in a 45-minute free-play session, using a specially chosen set of toys. As predicted, the language of the mothers of the children with Down syndrome differed significantly from that of the mothers of each of the groups of nonhandicapped children with regard to the functional language features studied.