Graphic Symbol and Speech Training of Young Children With Down Syndrome: Some Preliminary Findings

Abstract

This study examined the effects of five treatment conditions on the abilities of 11 preschool children with Down Syndrome to learn and use five new words/graphic symbols (Rebus or modified Bliss symbols). Treatment conditions included Speech and Language Training Only, Nonspeech Communication Training Only (Rebus or Bliss) and Speech and Language Training Combined with Nonspeech Communication Training (Rebus or Bliss). Subjects were seen for 12 individual sessions, the focus of which was training comprehension and spontaneous expressive use of the wordsl symbols. Pre- and post-treatment measures were obtained for training and nontraining words on the comprehension and expression tasks. Although no significant overall treatment effect was found for either task when pre-and post-treatment comparisons were made, there was a significant increase in comprehension scores for the subjects as a group. Analyses of the data from the treatment sessions revealed a significant decrease in the number of prompts required for expressive use of the wordl/symbols for subjects in the Speech and Language Training Combined with Nonspeech Communication Training conditions. Further, subjects'scores for some dependent measures significantly correlated with their developmental ages and levels of communicative functioning. Results suggest that incorporation of graphic symbols into the language intervention program may facilitate language acquisition in a young child with Down Syndrome, provided the tasks and procedures are appropriate to the child's developmental age and level of communicative functioning.

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