Parental reports of spoken language skills in children with Down syndrome

Spoken language in children with Down syndrome and in children in a normati ve group was compared. Growth trends, individual variation, sex differences , and performance on vocabulary, pragmatic, and grammar scales as well as M axLU (maximum length of utterance) were explored. Subjects were 330 childre n with Down syndrome (age range: 1-5 years) and 336 children in a normative group (1;4-2; 4 years;months). The Swedish Early Communicative Development inventory-words and sentences (SECDI-w&s) was employed. Performance of chi ldren with Down syndrome at ages 3;0 and 4;0 was comparable with that of ch ildren in the normative group at ages 1,4 and 1;8 respectively. In comparis on with children in the normative group of similar vocabulary size, childre n with Down syndrome lagged slightly on pragmatic and grammar scales. The e arly development proceeded in most cases with exponential or logistic growt h. This stresses the great potential of early intervention.