Speech disorder in children with Down's syndrome.
Kids with Down syndrome make speech errors that look random but follow a sound-swap pattern, so choose articulation targets, not phonology rules.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team looked at how kids with Down syndrome say the same word on different tries.
They compared these speech slips to slips made by kids who have a phonological disorder but not Down syndrome.
Each child said the same list of words three times so the researchers could count and sort the errors.
What they found
Both groups messed up about the same number of words across the three tries.
The difference was in the kind of mistakes. Kids with Down syndrome mostly dropped sounds or swapped one sound for an easier one.
Kids with the phonological disorder changed whole sound patterns in ways that followed rules they had invented.
How this fits with other research
Burack et al. (2004) also compared Down syndrome to autism, but they watched play skills instead of speech.
García-López et al. (2016) looked at Down syndrome versus autism again, this time asking parents about sexual behavior.
All three studies show that Down syndrome is not just \"milder\" autism; each group has its own pattern, so you must test the skill you want to teach, not assume it looks the same.
Why it matters
When you hear a child with Down syndrome say \"cat\" as \"ca\" one time and \"tat\" the next, do not assume the problem is simple inconsistency. Count what kind of changes happen. If the errors are mostly sound swaps or drops, pick goals that strengthen clear sound production, not rule-based phonology drills meant for other kids.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The speech of children with Down's syndrome (DS) is often unintelligible, unlike many other children who have an intellectual disability. However, the nature of their speech disorder is controversial. The speech error patterns of children with DS were compared to those of intellectually average children with phonological disorder whose errors were characterized by inconsistency. The groups were matched for percentages of consonants produced in error. The data revealed no differences between the groups in terms of the number of words which were produced inconsistently on repeated productions in a picture-naming task. However, further analyses revealed differences in the type of errors made by the groups in that the children with phonological disorder characterized by inconsistent errors made more changes to words on repeated production than the group with DS. The deficits underlying inconsistent pronunciation of words in the two groups of children under investigation would appear to differ. Intervention strategies should target the deficits identified.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2001 · doi:10.1046/j.1365-2788.2001.00327.x