Speech Skills in Down Syndrome Girls in Comparison With Other Mental Retarded Girls

Previous studies indicated that children, who acquired conversation concept, produce adjectives better than other mental retarded. Other studies showed that Down syndrome children have lower linguistic abilities than other mental retarded children. The main goal of this research was to study the effects of Down syndrome on production of semantic skills. Materials and'

This analytic cross-sectional study was conducted on girls who studied in exceptional primary schools of Semnan city. Samples were chosen systenlaticaly. At first, 38 Down syndrome girls, who were monolingual and with no sign of sensory and motor deficits, were selected. Then, 37 mental retarded girls (non-Down syndrome), that mental retardation had no specific ethiology, were matched on date of birth, educational level, failuer in previous classes, parent's job and education. These 75 pupils participated in operative tests and those who were able to comprehend the concept of conversation were examined by Raven Colourd Progressive Matrices. At final stage, 30 educable girls were participated in production test.

Our findings showed that: 1. The production of nominal and superlative adjectives were equivalent between two groups, but Down syndromes had lower ability in production of comparatives; 2. The simplisity of adjectives were as fallow: nominal> comparative> superlative, and big-small> tall-short> thick-thief> wide-narrow. 3. There were few samples able to produce superlatives.

This investigation revealed that girls suffering from Down syndrome have lower ability on production of semantic skills.