Joint attention behaviours and vocabulary development in children with Down syndrome

Abstract

These results support the hypothesis of continuity between preverbal precursors and vocabulary development in a population with atypical development.

Habilidades comunicativas e lexicais de crianças com Síndrome de Down: reflexões para inclusão escolar

“…The delay in the development of communicative skills in individuals with DS is foreseen in the literature 7,10,13,19,20,24,25 , even though these individuals do not behave in a homogenous way 10,24 .…”

“…One of the important indicators of the communicative intent is the use of gestures by the child, which can provide the possibilities of the communicative skills development 7,19,21 , since these develop before oral language and, in children with language delay, as foreseen in DS individuals, stay longer until these children have acquired further vocabulary and speech intelligibility 13,21,26 . The use of gestures, as it could be supposed, is not necessarily a disadvantage during the learning of oral language, since these play an important role in the of their lexical and communicative skills.…”

“…Other studies 6,10,13,[23][24][25] also pointed out the need to verify receptive and expressive skills that can be more limited in DS individuals. To compensate their oral production delay, many children use sign language for longer periods, aiming to improve their interlocutor comprehension 13,[19][20][21]23,26 . This behavior must be understood by parents and teachers so that they can optimize the communicative development, favoring this child´s mainstreaming process in the school setting.…”

“…Regarding language development, studies 8,13,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] described that these children show difficulties. Authors have shown the lexical acquisition, although delayed, follows the same development route 24 .…”

Consideração da idade mental na avaliação do vocabulário expressivo de crianças com Síndrome de Down

“…The concept that gestures positively influence the oral language development is settled and their presence interferes directly in communication, development of joint attention, and lexical development as a whole 10,[18][19][20][21][22][23] .…”