RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND SENSORIMOTOR DEVELOPMENT OF DOWN SYNDROME AND NONRETARDED-CHILDREN

  • 1 January 1981
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 86  (1) , 21-27
Abstract
The relationship between sensorimotor and language development of Down''s syndrome and nonretarded children was investigated. The Ordinal Scales of Psychological Development (OSPD) and the Receptive and Expressive Emergent Language (REEL) scale, were administered to 18 Down''s syndrome and 18 nonretarded children who had matched developmental ages of approximately 17 mo. Comparison of the resulting scores indicated that althoug there were no differences between the groups on 4 subscales of the OSPD, there were significant differences in favor of the nonretarded children on the Vocal Imitation subscale of the Down''s OSPD and on Receptive and Expressive measures of the REEL. Down''s syndrome children are delayed in their language development compared to nonretarded children of the same developmental age. This language delay appears to be related to deficiencies in vocal imitation skills but is not related to general sensorimotor functioning.

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