Expressive Language Development Of Children With Down Syndrome

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Development of Language 1 Running head: LANGUAGE AND DOWN SYNDROME Expressive Language Development of Children with Down Syndrome Development of Language 2 Expressive Language Development of Children with Down Syndrome For the majority of children, learning to communicate through verbal communication is an important part of their development. The complex language of humans is an important social tool and it allows for the specific expression of emotions, ideas, wants, and desires. Parents of typical, healthy children are often concerned about their child's language development (Kumin, Councill, and Goodman, 1999). They want to know if their child's language abilities are progressing just as other children the same age as their child. Down syndrome is a severe mental disorder caused by trisomy of chromosome 21 and it typically results in developmental delays. Therefore, making a comparison to other children or trying to determine whether their child's language skills are normal for his or her age is a much more complex process for parents of children with Down syndrome.

Because the language development of children Down syndrome is different from normal children, the research concerning this subject is essential knowledge for parents and educators (Chapman, Seung, Schwartz, and Bird, 1998). The study of language development in children with Down syndrome is important for many reasons. Parents need to know how to stimulate language development in their child and what is considered typical language development for this group of children. Also, educators need to have knowledge about the development of language in children with Down syndrome so they know when certain milestones should be reached, the educational techniques that should Development of Language 3 be used with them, and how to promote progress in language acquisition.

In order to determine the differences in language development between typical children and children with Down syndrome, studies...