The development of early expressive vocabulary in children with Down Syndrome

Abstract

A delay in expressive language in children with Down Syndrome (DS) is common, and often a major challenge of the condition. This study aimed to investigate the early expressive vocabulary skills of Maltese children with DS, whose first languages were either Maltese or English, while taking into account chronological age. Language preference was further explored in the context of a bilingual environment. A multi-method design was implemented across seven participants whose language abilities ranged from the expression of single words in isolation to simple word combinations. The expressive vocabularies of four boys and three girls between 2;10 and 11;9 years were assessed through caregiver report, picture naming and language sampling. Performance of the children was analysed in relation to local findings on lexical production in typically-developing children. The study revealed that productive vocabularies of Maltese bilingual children with DS escalated with increasing age, notwithstanding inevitable individual variation.