INTELLIGIBILITY OF SPEECH IN CHILDREN WITH DOWN-SYNDROME IN NATURAL SETTINGS - PARENTS PERSPECTIVE

Data collected from 937 parent questionnaires regarding intelligibilit y of speech in children with Down syndrome were analyzed. Intelligibil ity was a wide spread problem. Parents reported evidence of difficulti es classified as oral motor skills, motor programming skills, and spec ific speech skills. Children experienced greater difficulty with sente nces and in conversation than with single words. Intelligibility probl ems were more frequent when the child was conversing with unfamiliar a dults. The implications of these findings for clinical assessment and remediation are discussed.