The significance of maternal speech styles for children with Down syndrome

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate whether mothers of children with Down's syndrome are finding it difficult to provide their children with communicative experiences that might help promote linguistic progress beyond simple grammar, as a consequence of the children's own speech production difficulties. Nine children with Down's syndrome were matched with nine typically developing children on level of receptive grammar. Video recordings of mothers engaging their children in ten minute conversations , in their own homes, were analysed. Mothers of children with Down's syndrome made significantly more repetitions and expansions of their children's utterances than mothers of typically developing children did. Significant differences were not found in the amount of wh-questions, yes/no questions, tag questions, or two choice questions asked by mothers. Analysis of chil-dren's speech showed that children with Down's syndrome had significantly shorter MLUs than the typically developing children. A greater percentage of children's longer utterances occurred when the preceding maternal utterance was a wh-question compared to a closed question. Almost three-quarters of closed questions received no verbal response or a single word answer from the child. Alternative strategies for managing conversations are discussed with the aim of extending the linguistic ability of children with Down's syndrome. Acknowledgement The authors wish to express their thanks to the mothers and children who took part in this study.