The acquisition of grammatical morphemes in children with Down syndrome

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the acquisition of grammar in children _ with Down syndrome, in particular to look at the production of morphological rules (stated by Brown 1973), and onset ages at which they are acquired in their language. In a study of three children in the United States, Brown found that between the ages of 2 and 4 years, typically developing children gradually incorporated a variety of different morphemes in their speech. Although there was little correspondence between the inclusion of separate morphemes and chronological age, there was a strong similarity in relation to the sequence in which the different morphemes appeared in their speech. In this longitudinal study the children with Down syndrome produce their first 10 words on average 12 months later than typically developing children, then the majority of the early morphological rules were in fact acquired by the children with Down syndrome, at a similar rate to typically developing children. This therefore would suggest that once the children with Down syndrome get going with the production of language, they in fact show a similar pattern as typically developing children in the early acquisition of grammar.