Mean length utterance in Brazilian children: a comparative study between Down syndrome, specific language impairment, and typical language development.

Angela Maria De Amorim Carvalho,Suelly Cecília Olivan Limongi,Debora Maria Befi-Lopes

doi:10.1590/2317-1782/201420140516

Angela Maria De Amorim Carvalho, Suelly Cecília Olivan Limongi + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/2317-1782/201420140516

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Journal: CoDAS	Publication Date: Jun 1, 2014
Citations: 3	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: Universidade de São Paulo

Abstract

To describe the linguistic performance of Brazilian Portuguese-speaking children with Down syndrome by analyzing their Mean Length Utterance; to compare their performance to that of children with Specific Language Impairment and Typical Development; and to verify whether children with Down syndrome present developmental language delay or disorder. Participants were 25 children with Down syndrome (Research Group), matched by mental age to a Control Group of typically developing children, and to a Control Group of children with Specific Language Impairment. Participants were divided into subgroups, according to age range (three, four and five years). Speech samples were collected for the Research Group, and the Mean Length Utterance was analyzed for morphemes and words. Differences were observed between the performance of the Research Group and both Control Groups, and the former presented inferior Mean Length Utterance values for all age ranges, characterizing a delay in grammar and general language development. The description of the linguistic abilities of Brazilian Portuguese-speaking children with Down syndrome indicated important grammatical deficits, especially regarding the use of functional words.

Highlights

Populations with Down syndrome (DS), the most frequent chromosome pathology and the most common genetic cause of intellectual deficiency, present great variability in language development
The data pertaining to both control groups (CG) were obtained from a previously conducted study[12], in which the inclusion criteria were as follows: 1. For the CG-typical development (TD): presenting performances adequate to chronological age (CA) in a speech and language triage[17]; having no complaints and no previous submission to any intervention related to the areas of speech-language pathology and audiology, psychology, or neurology; being a speaker of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) exposed only to this language; attending a day-care center subsidized by the city of São Paulo; 2
An exception to this increase in average as age progresses was observed in the 4-year age range of the study group with children with DS (SG-DS) in regard to the GM-1 and to the mean length of utterance (MLU)-m and MLU-w, which maintained the same average of the 3-year age range

Summary

Introduction

Populations with Down syndrome (DS), the most frequent chromosome pathology and the most common genetic cause of intellectual deficiency, present great variability in language development. Studies report that these individuals have linguistic deficits that are reflected on difficulties with all aspects related to language (phonology, pragmatics, semantics, syntax, and morphology). These difficulties are seen as delays instead of language development disorders. The difficulties presented by these individuals in regard to morphosyntactic aspects are confirmed by researchers who have used the mean length of utterance (MLU) in their studies

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