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Preverbal communicative behavior in Down Syndrome infants
118 /J
PREVERBAL COMMUNICATIVE BEHAVIOR IN DOWN SYNDROME INFANTS ~Martin Fischer This investigation examined the preverbal communicative behaviors and the interaction between infant signals and maternal responses of developmentally matched Down syndrome and nonretarded infants. The mean developmental age for both groups was 13.7 months. The mean language age was 13.1 months for the Down syndrome infants and 13.4 months for the nonretarded infants Analyses were conducted to determine whether Down syndrome mother-infant dyads could be discriminated from nonretarded mother-infants dyads. The discriminating variables included infant signaling and nonsignaling behaviors, maternal verbal utterances, and dyadic social communicative interactions The results indicated that the two groups could not be discriminated on the basis of the orientation o r type of infant signal, or on the form or function of maternal verbal utterances. The groups could be .discriminated on the basis of t h e percent of infant initiated signals and on the percent of specific infant behaviors to which mothers responded. The Down syndrome infants exhibited significantly more mother initiated signals than the nonretarded infants. This between group difference could not be attributed to the frequency of maternal antecedents. An examination of the percent of infant behaviors responded to indicated that mothers of the Down syndrome children responded significantly more often regardless of the type of infant behavior exhibited.
PREVERBAL COMMUNICATIVE BEHAVIOR IN DOWN SYNDROME INFANTS ~Martin Fischer This investigation examined the preverbal communicative behaviors and the interaction between infant signals and maternal responses of developmentally matched Down syndrome and nonretarded infants. The mean developmental age for both groups was 13.7 months. The mean language age was 13.1 months for the Down syndrome infants and 13.4 months for the nonretarded infants Analyses were conducted to determine whether Down syndrome mother-infant dyads could be discriminated from nonretarded mother-infants dyads. The discriminating variables included infant signaling and nonsignaling behaviors, maternal verbal utterances, and dyadic social communicative interactions The results indicated that the two groups could not be discriminated on the basis of the orientation o r type of infant signal, or on the form or function of maternal verbal utterances. The groups could be .discriminated on the basis of t h e percent of infant initiated signals and on the percent of specific infant behaviors to which mothers responded. The Down syndrome infants exhibited significantly more mother initiated signals than the nonretarded infants. This between group difference could not be attributed to the frequency of maternal antecedents. An examination of the percent of infant behaviors responded to indicated that mothers of the Down syndrome children responded significantly more often regardless of the type of infant behavior exhibited.