Verb production by individuals with Down syndrome during narration.
Kids with Down syndrome know varied verbs but use them sparingly in stories—intervention should boost verb density, not just vocabulary.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Smit et al. (2019) asked kids with Down syndrome to tell a story from a wordless picture book. They compared the stories to kids without disabilities who were the same age and kids who had similar language levels.
The team counted how many different verbs each child used and how often they used any verb at all.
What they found
Kids with Down syndrome knew plenty of different verbs. They just did not use them often during the story.
Their verb count stayed low even when matched to younger kids who spoke at the same level.
How this fits with other research
Boo et al. (2022) saw the same low-density pattern in kids with ASD or ADHD during a VR chat. Both studies show that dynamic tasks make expressive language shrink, even when vocabulary is strong.
Saban-Bezalel (2025) found that preschoolers with broad developmental delay also used fewer complex messages than same-age peers. Together, the three papers say: reduced output is common across diagnoses when the task feels hard.
Poloczek et al. (2016) looked at verbal rehearsal in teens with mild ID and saw no gap once mental age was matched. That result seems to clash with J et al.'s low verb use, but the tasks differ. Sebastian used quiet memory lists; J used open-ended storytelling. Storytelling demands more self-generated words, so the gap shows up there.
Why it matters
Do not assume a rich vocabulary list equals rich spoken language. For kids with Down syndrome, boost how often they say the verbs they already know. Model short sentences packed with verbs during play, crafts, or story re-tell. Count verbs per minute as an easy progress check.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Despite research identifying verb knowledge as a strong predictor of later syntactic skills in typical development, virtually no research has examined verb development in Down syndrome. AIMS: The purpose of this study was to examine verb production (density, diversity, and type-token ratios) by individuals with Down syndrome in the context of story generation relative to two comparison groups - nonverbal cognitive ability level matches with typical development and chronological age matches with mixed-etiology intellectual disability. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Thirty-five participants with Down syndrome (11-21 years), 27 participants with intellectual disability (13-20 years), and 29 participants with typical development (4-6 years) completed a narrative story generation task. Transcripts were coded and analyzed for verb production. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Examining overall verb production, participants with Down syndrome produced narratives with less verb density than participants with typical development and had smaller verb type-token ratios than participants with intellectual disability. Upon examining lexical verb production, participants with Down syndrome produced narratives with less lexical verb density than participants with typical development. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The results indicate that individuals with Down syndrome have a developmentally appropriate diversity of verbs in their lexicon but are not using verbs as frequently as comparison groups.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2019 · doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2011/11-0075)