Communication Profiles of Adolescents With Down Syndrome

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if male adolescents with Down syndrome (DS) have a communication pattern which differs from males in three control groups matched for chronological age and mental age. Descriptive communication profiles were constructed which considered language comprehension and production, oral-motor functioning, articulation and aerodynamic tasks. Of particular interest was the relalionship of speech intelligibility to these measures. The DS group was found to be significantly different from the other groups for mean length of utterance, comprehension of syntax, single word articulation, selected diadochokinetic tasks, and some aerodynamic tasks. An hypothesis was generated that persons with DS have problems with sequential processing which influences the entire communication profile.