Research Paper
Inferential language use by youth with Down syndrome during narration

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2017.10.002Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Youth with DS used less inferential language than the other participant groups.

  • Inferential language may be unique to the DS phenotype, at least relative to FXS.

  • Results varied by inference subtype.

  • Expressive morphosyntactic abilities contributed to the observed group differences.

Abstract

We examined inferential language use by youth with Down syndrome (DS) in the context of narrative storytelling relative to younger typically developing (TD) children and same-aged peers with fragile X syndrome (FXS) matched on nonverbal cognitive ability level. Participants’ narratives were coded for the use of different types of inferential language. Participants with DS used proportionately less inferential language overall relative to their counterparts with TD or FXS, although mean length of utterance accounted for group differences observed for the DS-TD group comparison only. Patterns of inferential language use varied across inferential subtypes and across participant groups, with mean length of utterance playing a significant role in group differences. These findings suggest potential syndrome specificity to the DS phenotype regarding impairments in inferential language use that can be partially explained by level of expressive syntactic ability and should be considered in future research. Clinical interventions within the DS population, therefore, should target to some extent the use of inferential language and complex sentence structure.

Introduction

Down syndrome (DS) is the leading known genetic cause of intellectual disability (Presson et al., 2013). In addition to their cognitive delay, individuals with DS experience difficulties with nearly all facets of language (Abbeduto, Warren, & Conners, 2007; McDuffie, Thurman, Channell, & Abbeduto, 2017). Expressive language is particularly impaired, with delays observed relative to both receptive language and nonverbal cognitive ability level (Chapman, Seung, Schwartz, & Kay-Raining Bird, 1998; Miller, 1999). Syntax, or grammar, is also particularly impaired relative to other domains of language, such as vocabulary (Abbeduto et al., 2003; Finestack, Sterling, & Abbeduto, 2013; Phillips, Loveall, Channell, & Conners, 2014), with expressive morphosyntax being the most impaired (Chapman & Hesketh, 2000; Finestack & Abbeduto,2010). Far less is known about the pragmatic language abilities, or social use of language, of individuals with DS, particularly for individuals who have progressed beyond the early stages of development. The limited literature points to a complex pragmatic language profile of relative strengths and difficulties, varying by sub-domain assessed and comparison group (e.g., autism spectrum disorder and fragile X syndrome; typical development) used (Abbeduto et al., 2008, Lee et al., 2017; Martin, Losh, Estigarribia, Sideris, & Roberts, 2013; Roberts et al., 2007; Smith, Naess, & Jarrold, 2017).

Inferential language is a complex sub-domain of pragmatic language that requires an individual to use social cognition to integrate information that is not explicitly provided from the context, draw logical conclusions (i.e., generate inferences), and use language to communicate these inferences to a listener. To date, no studies have comprehensively examined inferential language abilities in individuals with DS. Because inferential language serves as a framework for positive social interactions and learning in academic contexts (Carpendale and Lewis, 2006, Symons, 2004), it is important to determine whether the phenotypic characteristics of DS impact this important foundation for development. The purpose of the current study, therefore, was to investigate inferential language use by youth with DS in the context of narrative storytelling.

Section snippets

Inferential language in narrative

Narrative storytelling (i.e., the ability to coherently relay a sequence of events to a listener) is an important aspect of expressive language needed for everyday communication and is an area in which individuals with DS also struggle, although the extent of their challenges in narration is not clear (Boudreau & Chapman, 2000; Channell, McDuffie, Bullard, & Abbeduto, 2015; Finestack, Palmer, & Abbeduto, 2012; Hesketh & Chapman, 1998; Hogan-Brown, Losh, Martin, & Mueffelmann, 2013; Miles &

Inferential language in DS

What is currently known about inferential language use in DS comes from a handful studies focusing on mental state language and causal referencing in autism spectrum disorder in which DS was included as a comparison group (Baron-Cohen, Leslie, & Frith, 1986; Tager-Flusberg, 1992). Although both the Baron-Cohen and Tager-Flusberg studies included very small sample sizes, they pointed to a general trend of young children with DS making fewer references to character mental states (Baron-Cohen et

Current study

The purpose of the current study was to examine inferential language use in the context of narrative storytelling by individuals with DS. We analyzed the use of different types of inferences that vary in complexity of social-cognitive reasoning to determine patterns of strength and weakness across the inference types. We included two comparison groups: younger TD children and same-age peers with FXS, with the groups matched on nonverbal cognitive ability level. We compared participants with DS

Participants

The 68 participants for this study (DS n = 23, FXS n = 22, TD n = 23) were drawn from a larger longitudinal project focusing on language development in neurodevelopmental disorders. Participants overlapped with those reported in previous papers (e.g., Channell et al., 2015, Finestack et al., 2013; Kover, McDuffie, Abbeduto, & Brown, 2012; McDuffie et al., 2010); however, all analyses in the present study are unique and have not been previously reported.

In the larger project, all participants were

Analytic approach

To address Aim 1, we conducted an analysis of variance (ANOVA) to examine the impact of participant group on overall inferential language use. Then, we conducted an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to examine whether potential group differences changed after accounting for the effect of MLU (Aim 3). Based on the initial findings reported below, in keeping with the focus of the current study on DS, and importantly, to limit the number of statistical comparisons, we proceeded to address Aim 2

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to examine inferential language use during narrative storytelling by children and adolescents with DS relative to same-aged peers with FXS and younger TD children matched by nonverbal cognitive ability level. First, we aimed to compare groups according to their overall rate of inferential language use (i.e., the proportion of utterances containing inferential language). Second, because prior literature led to the hypothesis that inferential language use may vary by

Acknowledgements

We are most thankful for all the families who participated in this study. We also thank the countless staff who worked with participant recruitment and scheduling, data collection, and language sample transcription. We thank Taylor Hoffman for her contributions to the coding specific to this project. This research was supported by NIH grants R01HD024356 and U54HD079125 (PI: Abbeduto).

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      For example, Hesketh and Chapman (1998) and Michael et al. (2012) both used narrative tasks, but Grela’s (2002) data included language transcripts from the Child Language Database Exchange System (CHILDES; MacWhinney, 2000) that were collected during mother-child free play at home. Because narration may be cognitively taxing (e.g. Berman & Slobin, 1994), participants with DS might leave out key story grammar elements (e.g. character actions; Ashby, Channell, & Abbeduto, 2017; Channell et al., 2015), thus precluding the need for including a verb. It is also possible that children are simply more comfortable with their mothers during free play and therefore talk more and produce more verbs.

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      Additionally, several studies have examined the use of narrative language in FXS employing a variety of methods, including a study by Finestack, Palmer, & Abbeduto (2012) in which the Narrative Scoring Scheme (NSS; Heilmann, Miller, Nockerts, & Dunaway, 2010) was used. Other studies of narrative language abilities in FXS have included more fine-grained, frequency-based approaches to examine the episodic structure of narratives (Channell, McDuffie, Bullard, & Abbeduto, 2015) as well as the use of inferential language to provide explanations for, and evaluations of, events and character actions and reactions (Ashby, Channell, & Abbeduto, 2017). Collectively, these studies document delays relative to chronological age expectations on all measures for individuals with FXS.

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