Verbal and non-verbal requests in Spanish speaking children with Down syndrome

Children with Down syndrome have been described to have language, social-communicative and intentional skills that lag behind age-matched peers, with frequent gesture use that is not accompanied by vocalisations or words. Early intentional communication, particularly requests, has been shown to be an important step in future language development. This is a preliminary study that explores the use of verbal and non-verbal requests in 4 Spanish-speaking children with Down syndrome from very low income families. Children were observed in an elicited request task and language level was evaluated using a parental report. Results showed that all participants were very delayed in their language production. Children used mostly combinations of non-verbal requests. Data support previous studies in that Spanish-speaking children also use non-verbal requests for a prolonged period of time as a strategy to compensate for their linguistic deficits. Findings differ from previous studies in that most combinations of gestures were complementary and not equivalent. Their language development was much more depressed than most data published to date. This lag could be explained because children were from very low income environments and they may lack stimulation because of family situations. It is suggested that data from a larger sample be collected and compared to typically developing children in order to make a stronger proposal about the use of non-verbal forms as a bridge to verbal productions.