Research Implications: The development of Grammar in Down's Syndrome Children between the Mental ages of 2-0 and 6-11 Years

The purpose of the investigation was to compare syntactic usage of institutionalized and home-reared Down's syndrome children with that of normally developing children of equivalent mental age, using the Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS) procedure (Lee, 1974). Results demonstrated that when compared with normally developing children of the same mental age, the Down's syndrome subject evidenced a more homogeneous pattern of syntactic usage and tended to acquire only low level syntactic structures, as identified by the DSS procedure. The study showed no significant differences in syntactic usage between male and female or institutionalized and home-reared subjects.