The comprehension of wh-questions and passives in German children and adolescents with Down syndrome
Children with Down syndrome (DS) have difficulty comprehending complex syntactic structures. Ring and Clahsen (2005) attribute these problems to a specific syntactic deficit that affects A(=argument) movement. We investigated the comprehension of passive sentences (A-movement) and wh-questions (wh-movement) in 22 German children and adolescents with DS compared to mental-age matched typically developing children. The results suggest that an impairment in the syntactic development affecting also wh-movement structures occurs in a substantial proportion of children with DS and exceeds their general cognitive disabilities. The error patterns of both tests reveal problems with non-canonical clauses and the use of the Agent-first strategy as in early stages of typical acquisition. Moreover, limitations in phonological working memory might contribute to syntactic processing problems in individuals with DS.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction: Sentence comprehension problems in individuals with Down syndrome
- 1.1Aim of paper and research questions
- 1.2Structure and acquisition of German wh-questions and passives
- Structure of passives and wh-questions: A-movement and A′-movement
- Acquisition of questions and passives in German
- 2.Method
- 2.1Participants
- 2.2Measures
- 2.2.1Standardized passive comprehension test (TSVK)
- 2.2.2Comprehension of wh-questions
- 2.2.3Background measures: General grammar comprehension and phonological working memory
- 2.3Data analysis
- 3.Results
- 3.1Results of the passive test (TSVK)
- 3.2.Results of the who-question comprehension task
- 3.3Results of background measures: TROG-D and NWR
- 3.4Comparison of tests and correlational analyses
- 4.Discussion
- 5.Conclusion
-
Acknowledgements
-
Notes
-
References
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