Næss Kari-Anne B, Ostad Johanne, Nygaard Egil
Department of Special Needs Education, University of Oslo, 0318 Oslo, Norway.
The National Library of Norway, 0255 Oslo, Norway.
Brain Sci. 2021 Mar 2;11(3):312. doi: 10.3390/brainsci11030312.
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, < 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.
本研究的目的是检验唐氏综合征患儿与发育正常儿童在表达性词汇发展预测因素方面的潜在差异，以支持干预发展的准备工作。对一组年龄队列中的43名唐氏综合征患儿和57名非语言心理年龄水平相似的发育正常儿童在三个时间点进行了评估。使用线性混合模型来研究随时间变化的表达性词汇预测因素。两组在表达性词汇方面均取得了进步。发育正常的儿童比唐氏综合征患儿的增长更为显著（1.38标准差对0.8标准差，<0.001）。在两组中，接受性词汇、听觉记忆和家庭读写环境都是发展的重要预测因素。在唐氏综合征患儿中，语音意识和口腔运动技能也很重要。组间比较表明，接受性词汇、听觉记忆和口腔运动技能在唐氏综合征患儿中比在发育正常的儿童中是更强的预测因素。这些结果表明，在已知影响表达性词汇的风险因素方面，唐氏综合征患儿比发育正常的儿童更脆弱。因此，唐氏综合征患儿需要早期广泛的表达性词汇干预。
