Forty-two normal and Down's syndrome children and their mothers were observed while interacting at home in a free-play situation. The linguistic level of the children as assessed by mean length of utterance ranged from 1.00 to 3.00. Quantitative aspects of the verbal interaction were analysed. They were found to vary with the language level of the children. Correlational analyses confirmed the validity of MLU as a reflection of formal complexity in children's speech and in mothers' speech directed to their children. The data were related to other recent studies on the same topic.
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