Longitudinal data on the unstructured interactions at home of 9 children with Down syndrome were used to compare individual differences in initial expressive vocabulary growth to group data identically collected longitudinally on children without disabilities. The overall pattern of vocabulary growth was similar in all the children. Among the children with Down syndrome, differences in initial learning strategies, an asynchrony between growth of vocabulary and MLU, and differences between individual children of as long as 2 years in producing the first 50 words of expressive vocabulary were seen. Implications for intervention are discussed.
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