CG-DS MORPHOSYNTAX · The Development of Cypriot Greek in Individuals with Down Syndrome: Their Morphosyntactic profile, and the effects of Phonetics and Phonology

The Development of Cypriot Greek in Individuals with Down Syndrome: Their Morphosyntactic profile, and the effects of Phonetics and Phonology

This project investigates the linguistic development of Cypriot Greek (CG)-speaking children with Down Syndrome (DS) aged 5;0–18;11 and CG-speaking children with typical language development (TLD) aged 2;0–6;11. Similarities and differences between the two populations are compared to determine whether individuals with DS present acquisition stages parallel (but delayed) to those observed with children with TLD, or whether they present a fundamentally different language development. We conduct thorough research on what conditions differences between the two groups, if any, and try to explain how those emerge, based on what we know about language (typical and atypical). Preliminary results from the data transcribed and analysed thus far contradict previous findings on the linguistic development of children with DS speaking other languages. Full analysis however, might potentially paint a different picture on the variability of grammatical difficulties associated with DS. First, the DS phonetic and phonological system presents some minor difficulties but participants with DS know and follow in performance both the phonetic and phonological system of the language, as well as a number of phonological processes observed in child and adult speech. However, given that all participants diagnosed with DS had some years of speech and language therapy, phonetic and phonological issues appear to be minimal, compared to those observed with CG adults with DS reported in previous work conducted by Christodoulou (2011). The latter had little or no speech and language therapy. This result suggests that speech and language therapy can contribute greatly to the improvement of the linguistic abilities of children with DS if administered as early as possible. In addition, it suggests that certain linguistic abilities can be improved, despite the fact that this is a neurodevelopmental disorder. Second, preliminary analysis on the production of Case inflectional marking shows at ceiling (100%) accuracy for both groups. High accuracy rates with all verbal inflectional features (aspect, tense, person number) are also recorded for both groups (>90%). Third, results on the acquisition of complex syntactic structures show higher performance with the comprehension compared to production of subjunctive clauses. Children with DS and TLD may both avoid the production of subjunctive clauses by using grammatical alternative strategies. A common coping strategy is the production of relative clauses when subjunctive clauses are targeted. Moreover, wh- questions present high accuracy rates with comprehension, but low accuracy rates with production. This is especially evident when wh- questions are targeted by a controlled elicitation task. However, close to ceiling performance when wh- questions are produced in spontaneous speech is recorded. Preliminary analysis of the comprehension and production of imperatives/commands evidenced at ceiling accuracy with comprehension and high accuracy rates with production. An alternative strategy was observed with this structural environment as well. Specifically, children from both groups exhibit a clear preference in using a subjunctive clause, when failing to use the targeted imperative structure. It is unlikely that this grammatically accurate coping strategy is due to frequency, since commands marked with imperative are more frequent, especially with children, than commands with subjunctive clauses. It is important to mention that the use of a subjunctive clause to form commands is described as “less than a forceful command” (Holton et al 2006). It is unclear at this point whether the production of a subjunctive clause, instead of an imperative is motivated by the use of a “more polite” alternative, or the structural/grammatical complexity of imperative clauses. It should be once again stressed that due to the large volume of data collected full transcription and data analysis was unfeasible. A major long-term objective of this research project is to create the first developmental trajectory of language development for the two populations (also the first for individuals with DS in general), tracing their linguistic competence and performance across different ages. As a first step, this research and documentation on the language abilities of individuals diagnosed with Down Syndrome as well as children with TLD provides invaluable information in creating a developmental trajectory on what they are or what they are not able to produce and/or comprehend at a certain age. Moreover, by documenting the linguistic abilities of children with DS across different ages we create a ‘baseline’ as to what they know at what age. When comparing their baseline to the one created for children with TLD we examine what is fundamentally different between the two populations. Therefore, as a second step, it helps with more timely and efficient diagnosis, assessment, and improvement/ rehabilitation of the linguistic abilities of individuals diagnosed with DS. However, it also helps assess undiagnosed children with language difficulties or delays, conditioned by other causes, by comparing their abilities to those of a number of children with TLD at the same age to determine how they differ and what can be done to bridge the gap between the two. These baselines resulting from the formation of the developmental trajectory for the two populations can prove invaluable for speech–language therapists, since they can be used as the basis to create new diagnostic and therapy tools that would help children with DS reach the desired/expected and attainable level. If therapists already know what linguistic characteristics children with DS have at a certain age and what their language abilities are expected to be at that age based on what we record for children with TLD, they will be able to trace those problems more quickly and more efficiently. However, we should always take into consideration that DS is a genetic disorder and certain cognitive and potentially linguistic limitations might prevent full acquisition in certain cases. As a third step, it provides a window into how language works and how a brain with the specific genome operates in relation to language. Overall, based on preliminary results, both children with DS and TLD have fully acquired the inflectional system of Cypriot Greek. Micro-variations across different ages within and across groups are expected upon completion of data analysis. With regards to structural complexity, children with DS and TLD exhibit higher performance with the production as opposed to the comprehension of subjunctive, interrogative and imperative clauses. This suggests that they have acquired the grammatical structures but do not always follow in performance. Pending full analysis, minor differentiations on the reported results are possible. CGDS Morphosyntax is the biggest project to ever be conducted on the linguistic abilities of individuals diagnosed with Down Syndrome internationally and on CG-speaking children with TLD. It does not only give us a window into the linguistic abilities of children with DS and TLD in general, by investigating on a large variety of grammatical phenomena, but it also opens the potential of creating a developmental trajectory on the linguistic abilities of each population distinctively, which will be finalised upon full data analysis. Furthermore, it allows us to create a socio-linguistic atlas of the micro-variations that exist in the Cypriot Greek linguistic variety, based on geographical location. Finally, awaiting full analysis of the data, the results from this project with make an invaluable contribution to speech and language therapy for children with DS, but also children with language difficulties or delays. Future research of the same grammatical phenomena across Europe, with the necessary adjustments to the experimental stimuli, will determine whether what causes the recorded difficulties is determined by language-specific characteristics or is a general phenomenon related to the language faculty and the Down Syndrome genome.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз