Shared book reading and word learning in children with typical development and with down syndrome

Abstract

Shared book reading is a resource for teaching vocabulary to preschool children. However, it is not known whether this resource is effective among children with Down Syndrome (ds). This study focused on the learning of relations between words (a noun and an adjective) and figures by both, children with ds and children with typical development (td), from the repeated reading of a story. Six children with td (3-4 years) and six ds (5-8 years) participated in three shared book-reading sessions, conducted individually. The book contained two unknown words and their respective figures. In each session, a different condition of reading was presented. Before the procedure and at the end of each session, probes of naming, matching to sample and exclusion responding were performed. One week after the last session, the probes were reapplied, plus generalization probes. td children showed learning of the word-fruit relation in the probes. Two ds participants showed evidence of learning the word-fruit relation, but not the word-color relation. The procedure was adequate for teaching nouns for td children with, but not for ds children, who require additional procedures.