Premium
An investigation into non‐fluency in Down's syndrome *
Author(s) -
Willcox Amanda
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
international journal of language and communication disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.101
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1460-6984
pISSN - 1368-2822
DOI - 10.3109/13682828809019884
Subject(s) - fluency , down syndrome , psychology , developmental psychology , medicine , psychiatry , mathematics education
Previous studies of the non‐fluencies noted in Down's syndrome individuals have failed to take account of the linguistic age and competence of the subjects. The hypothesis of this study was that, if the language age of Down's syndrome subjects were delayed in comparison to chronological age, more insight might be gained if their non‐fluencies were considered as normal non‐fluency, a phenomenon observed in normally developing children at an early language age. The non‐fluencies of five Down's syndrome subjects were examined in relation to those of five developmentally normal subjects with equivalent language ages. The non‐fluencies in the Down's group shared some characteristics with those of the normal children, but were different in other ways. It was felt to be more appropriate to consider their non‐fluencies in relation to their language deficit and to the non‐fluencies noted in language‐impaired children. The findings thus add weight to the hypothesis of deviant language development in Down's syndrome.