The Phonological Assessment of Language in Subjects With Down Syndrome: Neurolinguistic Evaluation

Language is defined as the neurodevelopmental ability; to use words, and to combine words so as to communicate. there have been many studies being carried out regarding how the linguistic knowledge is represented in brain damaged people. since the children with down syndrome have neurodevelopmental delays language system is disrupted by this delay. the aim of this study is to make contributions to efforts in developing treatment approaches for children with down syndrome. for this purpose, we looked at normal development and then explored how and why the down syndrome population differs. we examined the phonological development of fourteen children with down syndrome. our findings were interpreted with respect to language acquisition theories. as the language is an inseparable unity of components; syntactic, semantic and pragmatic aspects of subjects’ utterances were analyzed. language skills of subjects, which are to progress in accordance to neurological development, were compared to the expected norms of the chorological age. we observed that children with down syndrome do not perform as well as normal developing children, in understanding several aspects of phonological awareness. for example some phonemes are not articulated and some are interchanged. some differences are observed within the groups. it is thought that the children can not articulate some phonemes because of mechanic problems in speech organs with no neurological defect in articulation. our data suggests that children who are treated during this critical period show rapid development compared with the children who are treated after the critical period. to defeat these handicaps in their language skills, children with down syndrome should be involved in theraphy programs in early stages.