Pronoun comprehension in individuals with Down syndrome: the role of age.
Pronoun comprehension in individuals with Down syndrome: the role of age.
复制标题
唐氏综合症患者的代词理解：年龄的作用。
DOI：
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复制
发表时间：
2015
影响因子：
2.4
通讯作者：
S. Varlokosta
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
E. Sanoudaki;S. Varlokosta
背景
许多研究表明，唐氏综合症(DS)患者的语言可能不会简单地延迟于典型发育中(TD)儿童的语言，而是偏离正常。人们在对代词的理解中发现了这种偏差，这引发了人们对DS患者存在特定句法缺陷的看法。然而，DS患者代词理解的发展路径尚不清楚，因为目前还没有对不同年龄个体的研究。
目标
进行一项先导性研究，考察患有DS的青少年和成人与TD儿童的代词理解能力。研究问题包括：对于这两组人(DS和TD)，是否有些代词类型比其他类型更难？这两组人的表现有差别吗？在DS组中，表现与实际年龄相关吗？
方法和程序
通过手工图片选择任务，我们考察了14名10至34岁的希腊语DS患者对不同类型代词的理解能力。我们还测试了TD儿童的控制组和一个典型的成人组。TD和DS小组分别在学前班和为有学习障碍的个人设立的学校/中心招募和测试。对所有情况进行组内和组间比较。对于DS组，也研究了在每种情况下年龄与表现之间的相关性。
结果与结果
结果显示，在DS组中，年龄与成绩呈显著正相关，但仅在对TD儿童也有困难的结构中。对于年长的参与者来说，只对患有DS的人构成困难的结构似乎并没有更少的问题。
结论与启示
这些发现支持变异假说，认为DS患者在代词理解方面的句法缺陷存在于广泛年龄范围的个体中。与此同时，如果得到大规模研究的证实，研究结果表明，DS患者的语法发展的某些方面可能会持续到青春期之后，直到成年。我们认为，这些发现可以通过增加我们对DS行为表型的了解，为更有针对性的干预实践做出贡献。
BACKGROUND
A number of studies have suggested that language in individuals with Down syndrome (DS) may not be simply delayed compared with language in typically developing (TD) children, but deviant. The deviance has been detected in the comprehension of pronouns, and it has triggered proposals for the existence of a specific syntactic deficit in individuals with DS. However, the developmental path of pronoun comprehension in individuals with DS is unknown as there are no studies examining individuals of different ages.
AIMS
To perform a pilot study examining pronoun comprehension in adolescents and adults with DS in comparison with TD children. Research questions include: Are some pronoun types more difficult than others for each of the two groups (DS and TD)? Is there a difference in performance between the two groups? Does performance correlate with chronological age in the DS group?
METHODS & PROCEDURES
Using a manual picture selection task, we examined the comprehension of different types of pronouns in 14 Greek-speaking individuals with DS, ranging from 10 to 34 years of age. We also tested a control group of TD children as well as a typical adult group. The TD and DS groups were recruited and tested in pre-schools and schools/centres for individuals with learning disabilities, respectively. Within- and between-group comparisons were performed for all conditions. For the DS group, correlations between chronological age and performance in each condition were also explored.
OUTCOMES & RESULTS
Results reveal a significant positive correlation of age with performance in the DS group, but only in structures that also presented difficulties to TD children. Structures that presented difficulties only to individuals with DS do not appear to be less problematic for older participants.
CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS
These findings provide support to the deviance hypothesis by suggesting that the syntactic deficit in the comprehension of pronouns in individuals with DS is present in individuals of a wide age range. At the same time, the results, if corroborated by large-scale studies, suggest that some aspects of grammatical development in individuals with DS may continue even after adolescence and well into adulthood. We argue that these findings can contribute towards more targeted intervention practices by increasing our knowledge of the behavioural phenotype of DS.