Grammatical number inflection in Arabic-speaking children and young adults with Down syndrome

Subject-verb agreement inflection in Arabic-speaking individuals with Down syndrome

This research examines the production of subject-verb agreement inflection in person, number, and gender in Urban Jordanian Arabic-speaking individuals with Down syndrome (DS). Third person singular masculine, third person singular feminine, and third person plural suffixes (3MS/3FS/3P) were investigated to achieve this objective. The research involved 60 participants, 30 males and 30 females, enrolled in Nazik Al Hariri Welfare Center for Special Education in Amman. The participants were divided into three groups by age, kindergarten 2 (7.1 to 12.5), school-age (13.10 to 17.6), and vocational training (18.3 to 27.3). Data were collected via a picture-naming task. The results showed that verb agreement constitutes a severe problem in individuals with DS. All three age groups showed some degree of language decline. The 3MS form was the most used and the most accurate form by the three DS groups (48.5%), followed by the 3FS (35.3%) and the 3P (22.8%). A significant finding of this study is that the acquisition of agreement for person, number, and gender by the DS groups is associated with inconsistency and atypical asynchrony. In addition, the results show that age significantly affects the DS groups' production of subject-verb agreement. Thus, the study recommends early intervention for the verb system and subject-verb agreement.

Morphosyntactic abilities in young children with Down syndrome: Evidence from the Greek language

Down syndrome is the most common genetic syndrome of intellectual disabilities with a distinct linguistic profile. Language research so far has come mainly from the English language, a language with different syntax and morphology from many other languages, including Greek, indicating a paucity of research findings in the Greek language. Given the rich morphology and distinct syntactic characteristics of the Greek language, the present study evaluated the performance of children with Down syndrome (N = 45) who are native Greek speakers in syntax and morphology and compared it with the performance of children with typical development (N = 45) matched for chronological age. The paper also analysed the items of each task in terms of the performance of the two groups in subject-verb agreement, noun conversion from singular to plural, and verb conversion from present to past and future tenses. All children were tested in four subscales of a standardized test, including morphosyntactic comprehension, morphosyntactic completion and articulation (parts 1 and 2). The results showed that children with Down syndrome lag behind in syntax and morphology compared with children of typical development and present difficulties in specific aspects of morphology and syntax inherent in the Greek language. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: What is already known on this subject Morphosyntactic skills are severely impaired in Down syndrome, and research so far has come mainly from the English language, a language with different syntax and morphology from many other languages. What this paper adds to existing knowledge This research adds more information about morphosyntactic skills in children with Down syndrome compared with typically developing children in the Greek language, a language with rich morphology and syntax. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Children with Down syndrome face difficulties in morphosyntactic skills in the Greek language, especially in subject-verb agreement and in converting nouns from singular to plural.