SOCIAL FAMILIARITY AND COMMUNICATION IN DOWN SYNDROME

Abstract
The communication of 8 Down''s syndrome individuals with strangers and with acquaintances was analyzed. The spontaneity of their speech and the communicative demands they made on their audiences were low. Some of them broke rules of conversation by not answering questions. Their speech was not more spontaneous with acquaintances. Down''s syndrome individuals'' conversations were in the main restricted to comments on current actions. Different postures are adopted and different body mobility exhibited depending on partner familiarity. Down''s syndrome persons prefer to express intimacy/social distance in non-verbal modalities.

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