hrvatski

Expressive ability children with down syndrome and children with Williams syndrome

Down syndrome (further SD) is the most common chromosomopathy with incidence of 1: 600. Williams syndrome (further WS) is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder with incidence of 1:20000-25000. Persons with these disorders have the same cognitive deficit, but different language ability. The goal of this research was to test narrative ability of children with DS and children with WS. The research was carried out on a sample of 40 children with DS, 5 children with WS and 40 children with normal language development. The children were equalized on the criteria of receptive age. For receptive age assessment, we used the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT- III-HR ; Kovačević and ass., 2009). Expressive ability was tested on the variables: naming concepts, narration, and verbal description of the mother. The assumption was that the children with WS, according to all tested variables, would have better ability than children with DS, but poorer than children with normal language development. A statistical difference was found on two variables: narration and verbal description of the mother. As we assumed, the children with DS achieved significantly lower results then children with WS and children with regular development. However, statistically significant difference between children with WS and children with regular development was not found. The results confirm deficient expression in children with DS and its relatively well preservation in children with WS.

Down syndrome; Williams syndrome; expressive ability

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