Cover not available
Part of
Atypical Language Development in Romance Languages
Edited by Eva Aguilar-Mediavilla, Lucía Buil-Legaz, Raúl López-Penadés, Victor A. Sanchez-Azanza and Daniel Adrover-Roig
[Not in series 223] 2019
► pp. 201–217

The relationship between the lexicon and grammar in Spanish-speaking children with Down syndrome

| Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, , México
| Universidad de Málaga, , España
| Universidad de Málaga, , España
A strong association between early vocabulary comprehension and production has been shown in typically developing children (TD), and there is robust evidence for a lexicon-grammar association. These relations have been inconsistent in children with Down Syndrome (DS). In this study, ten Spanish-speaking children with DS were observed for vocabulary comprehension, production and initial morphosyntax using a parental report, the Down-CDI. Results showed high individual differences and developmental patterns were not similar to the literature of children with TD. The relation between vocabulary size, composition, sentence length and complexity was inconsistent. Thus, some developmental patterns of TD children are similar in children with DS. There is an association between grammar and vocabulary at the general level, but not within specific components.
Keywords: lexicon, grammar, Down Syndrome, Spanish
Article outline
  • Introduction
    • Lexical-grammatical relationships in children with Down Syndrome (DS)
  • Method
    • Participants
    • Instruments
    • Procedure
    • Data analysis
  • Results
    • Associations between vocabulary and grammar
    • Vocabulary composition and vocabulary levels
    • Grammatical word types relationships to grammatical structures in Group 2
  • Discussion
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 11 June 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.223.12jac
References (52)
References
Bates, E., Bretherton, I., & Snyder, L. 1988. From first words to grammar: Individual differences and dissociable mechanisms. New York, NY: Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
Bates, E., Dale, P. S., & Thal, D. 1995. Individual differences and their implications for theories of language development. In P. Fletcher & B. MacWhinney (Eds.), The handbook of child language (pp.96–151). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bates, E., & Goodman, J. 1997. On the inseparability of grammar and the lexicon: Evidence from acquisition, aphasia and real-time processing. Language and Cognitive Processes 12, 507–586. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1999. On the emergence of grammar from the lexicon. In B. MacWhinney (Ed.), The emergence of language (pp.29–79). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Bates, E., Marchman, V., Thal, D., Fenson, L., Dale, P., Reznick, S., Reilly, J., & Hartung, J. 1994. Developmental and stylistic variation in the composition of early vocabulary. Journal of Child Language 21(1), 85–124. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Caselli, M. C., Casadio, P., & Bates, E. 1999. A comparison of the transition from first words to grammar in English and Italian. Journal of Child Language 26, 69–111. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Caselli, M. C., Bates, E., Casadio, P., Fenson, J., Fenson, L., Sanderl, L., & Weir, J. 1995. A cross-linguistic study of early lexical development. Cognitive Development 10(2):159-199. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Caselli, M. C., Monaco, L., Trasciani, M., & Vicari, S. 2008. Language in Italian children with Down Syndrome and with specific language impairment. Neuropsychology 22(1), 27–35. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chapman, R. S., Seung, H.-K., Schwartz, S. E., & Kay-Raining Bird, E. 1998. Language skills of children and adolescents with Down Syndrome: II. Production deficits. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 41, 861–873. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chapman, R. S., Hesketh, L. J. & Kistler, D. J. 2002. Predicting longitudinal change in language production and comprehension in individuals with Down syndrome: Hierarchical linear modelling. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 45, 902–915. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Checa, E., Galeote, M., & Soto, P. 2016. The composition of early vocabulary in Spanish children with Down Syndrome and their peers with typical development. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 25(4), 605–619. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, N. 1988. Language and problems of knowledge: The Managua lectures. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Conboy, B. T., & Thal, D. J. 2006. Ties between the lexicon and grammar: Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of bilingual toddlers. Child Development 77(3), 712–735. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dale, P. S., Dionne, G., Eley, T. C., & Plomin, R. 2000. Lexical and grammatical development: A behavioural genetic perspective. Journal of Child Language 27(3), 619–642. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Devescovi, A., Caselli, M. C., Marchione, D., Pasqualetti, P., Reilly, J., & Bates, E. 2005. A crosslinguistic study of the relationship between grammar and lexical development. Journal of Child Language 32(4), 759–786. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De León, L. 1999. Verbs in Tzotzil (Mayan) early syntactic development. International Journal of Bilingualism 3(2–3), 219–239. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dixon, J. A., & Marchman, V. A. 2007. Grammar and the lexicon: Developmental ordering in language acquisition. Child Development 78(1), 190–212. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eadie, P. A., Fey, M. E., Douglas, J. M., & Parsons, C. L. 2002. Profiles of grammatical morphology and sentence imitation in children with specific language impairment and Down syndrome. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 45, 720–732. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fenson, L., Dale, P. S., Reznick, J. S., Thal, D., Bates, E., Hartung, J. P., et al. 2007. The MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories: User’s guide and technical manual. San Diego, CA: Singular.Google Scholar
Fenson, L., Marchman, V. A., Thal, D. J., Dale, P. S., Reznick, J. S., Bates, & E., et al. 2007. MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories: User’s guide and technical manual (2nd ed.). Baltimore, MD: Brookes.Google Scholar
Fowler, A. E. 1990. Language abilities in children with Down Syndrome: Evidence for specific syntactic delay. In D. Cicchetti & M. Beeghly (Eds.), Children with Down Syndrome: A developmental perspective, (pp.302–328). Cambridge: Cambridge University. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Galeote, M., Soto, P., Sebastián, E., Checa, E., & Sánchez-Palacios, C. 2014. Early grammatical development in Spanish children with Down Syndrome. Journal of Child Language 41(1), 111–131. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Galeote, M., Rey, R., Checa, E., & Sebastián, E. 2010. El desarrollo de la morfosintaxis en niños con síndrome de Down: Primeros datos normativos. Revista Síndrome de Down 27(4), 107.Google Scholar
Galeote, M., Soto, P., Sebastián, E., Rey, R., & Checa, E. 2012. La adquisición del vocabulario en niños con síndrome de Down: Datos normativos y tendencias de desarrollo. Infancia y Aprendizaje 35(1), 111–122. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Galeote, M., Checa, E., Sánchez-Palacios, C., Sebastián, E., & Soto, P. 2016. Adaptation of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories for Spanish children with Down Syndrome: Validity and reliability data for vocabulary. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 25(3), 371–380. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Galeote, M., Soto, P., Checa, E., Gómez, A., & Lamela, E. 2008. The acquisition of productive vocabulary in Spanish children with Down Syndrome. Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability 33, 292–302. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Galeote, M., Soto, P., Lamela, E., Checa, E., Pulido, L., & Rey, R. 2006. Adaptación de los Inventarios de Desarrollo Comunicativo MacArthur-Bates para el estudio del desarrollo del lenguaje en niños con síndrome de Down [Adaptation of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories for the study of language development of children with Down syndrome]. Revista de Atención Temprana 9, 4–16.Google Scholar
Gentner, D. 1982. Why nouns are learned before verbs: Linguistic relativity vs natural partitioning. In S. Kuczaj (Ed.), Language development, Vol. 2: Language, cognition and culture, (pp.301 – 334). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Goldfield, B., & Reznick, J. 1990. Early lexical acquisition: Rate, content, and the vocabulary spurt. Journal of Child Language 17, 171–183. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Iverson, J. M., Longobardi, E., & Casselli, M. C. 2003. Relationship between gestures and words in children with Down’s syndrome and typically developing children in the early stages of communicative development. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders 38, 179–197. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jackson-Maldonado, D. (in process). The effect of hippotherapy on communicative abilities in children with Down Syndrome.
Jackson-Maldonado, D., & Conboy, B. T. 2007. Utterance length measures for Spanish-speaking toddlers: The morpheme vs word issue revisited. In J. G. Centeno, L. K. Obler, & R. Anderson (Eds.), Studying communication disorders in Spanish speakers: Theoretical, research, & clinical aspects. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jackson-Maldonado, D., de Santiago, B., & Sánchez Aguilar, N. 2010. Verbal and non-verbal requests in Spanish-speaking children with Down Syndrome. Down Syndrome Research and Practice 12(2), 98–102.Google Scholar
Jackson-Maldonado, D., Thal, D., Fenson, L., Marchman, V. A., Newton, T., & Conboy, B. 2003. Inventarios MacArthur-Bates del Desarrollo de Habilidades Comunicativas. Technical Manual. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.Google Scholar
Jackson-Maldonado, D., Thal, D., Marchman, V., Bates, E., & Gutierrez-Clellen, V. 1993. Early lexical development in Spanish-speaking infants and toddlers. Journal of Child Language 20(3), 523–549. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kohnert, K., Kan, P. F., & Conboy, B. T. 2010. Lexical and grammatical associations in sequential bilingual preschoolers. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 53(3), 684–698. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
López-Ornat, S., Gallego, C., Gallo, P., Karousou, A., Mariscal, S. & Martínez, M. 2005. Inventarios de Desarrollo Comunicativo MacArthur: Manual [The MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories : Manual]. Madrid : TEA.Google Scholar
Marchman, V., & Bates, E. 1994. Continuity in lexical and morphological development: A test of the critical mass hypothesis. Journal of Child Language 21, 339–366. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marchman, V. A., Martínez-Sussmann, C., & Dale, P. S. 2004. The language-specific nature of grammatical development: Evidence from bilingual language learners. Developmental Science 7(2), 212–224. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Miller, J. F. 1988. The developmental asynchrony of language development in children with Down Syndrome. In L. Nadel (Ed.), The psychobiology of Down Syndrome, (pp.167–198). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
1992. Development of speech and language in children with Down Syndrome. In I. T. Lott & E. E. McLoy (eds.), Clinical care for persons with Down Syndrome, (pp.39–50). New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Reynolds, C. R., & Kampahus, R. W. 2013. RIAS Escalas de Inteligencia de Reynolds. RIST Test de Inteligencia Breve de Reynolds (Spanish adaptation by P. S. Santamaría Fernández & I. Fernández Pinto). Madrid: TEA Ediciones.Google Scholar
Roberts, J. E., Price, J., Barnes, E., Nelson, L., Burchinal, M., Hennon, E. A., Moskowitz, L., Edwards, A., Malkin, C., Anderson, K., Misenheimer, J., & Hooper, S. R. 2007. Receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, and speech production of boys with fragile X syndrome in comparison to boys with Down Syndrome. American Journal on Mental Retardation 112, 177–193. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rondal, J. A. 1978. Developmental sentence scoring procedure and the delay-difference question in language development of Down’s syndrome children. Mental Retardation 16, 169–171.Google Scholar
1993. Down syndrome. In D. Bishop & K. Mogford (Eds.), Language development in exceptional circumstances, (pp.165–176). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Serrat, E., Sanz-Torrent, M., & Bel, A. 2004. Aprendizaje léxico y desarrollo de la gramática: vocabulario verbal, aceleración morfológica y complejidad sintáctica. Anuario de Psicología/The UB Journal of Psychology 35(2), 221.Google Scholar
Serrat , E., Sanz-Torrent, M., Badia, I., Aguilar- Mediavilla, E., Olmo, R., Lara, M. F., & Serra-Raventós, M. 2010. La relación entre el aprendizaje léxico y el desarrollo gramatical. Infancia y Aprendizaje 33(4), 435–448. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tomasello, M. 1992. First verbs: A case study of early grammatical development. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2001. The item-based nature of children’s early syntactic development. In M. Tomasello & E. Bates (Eds.), Language development: The essential readings (pp.169–186). Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Vicari, S., Caselli, M. C., & Tonucci, F. 2000. Asynchrony of lexical and morphosyntactic development in children with Down Syndrome. Neuropsychologia 38, 634–644. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vicari, S., Caselli, M. C., Gagliardi, C., Tonucci, F., & Volterra, V. 2002. Language acquisition in special populations: A comparison between Down and Williams syndromes. Neuropsychologia 40, 2461–2470. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zampini, L., & D’Odorico, L. 2011. Lexical and syntactic development in Italian children with Down’s syndrome. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders 46(4): 386–396. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Diez-Itza, Eliseo, Patricio Vergara, María Barros, Manuela Miranda & Verónica Martínez
2021. Assessing Phonological Profiles in Children and Adolescents With Down Syndrome: The Effect of Elicitation Methods. Frontiers in Psychology 12 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.