Differences on morphological and phonological processing between typically developing children and children with Down syndrome

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that people with Down syndrome (Ds) have less highly developed morphosyntactic abilities than typically developing (TD) children. However, little is known about the morphological processing of this population. In this paper we carry out two experiments in which the morphological Base Frequency (BF) effect is explored in both groups. The aim of the experiments is to carry out an in-depth exploration of morphological processing in children with Ds and TD children. In the first experiment children performed a definition task; in the second children had to provide a plural form for singular words. The results show a significant BF effect in only the first experiment. In the second experiment this morphological variable does not reach significance, but the variable we called Ending phoneme (a phonological variable that refers to the last phoneme of the bases prior to the addition of plural morphemes) does. The results also show that children with Ds score significantly below the two control groups in both experiments, with no significant differences between control groups. We go on to discuss morphological processing in children with and without Ds, the role of the two tasks carried out (paying special attention to the role played by working memory), and the possible relationship between our results and morphosyntactic deficits described in the literature.