Do children with Down syndrome have difficulty with argument structure?
The language transcripts of seven children with Down syndrome (DS) and seven typically developing children with comparable mean length of utterance (MLU) levels were examined for their use of verb argument structure. The children’s production of subject arguments, direct object arguments, and inappropriate use of arguments (anomalies) were compared for each group. When compared across verb category, the results of this study revealed no significant group differences for the omission of subject arguments. However, when arguments for transitive verb productions were compared, the children with DS were more likely to omit subject arguments in comparison to direct object arguments. In addition, the normal control group was more likely to use anomalous argument patterns than the children with DS. These findings suggest that syntactic difficulties that are characteristic of children with DS may delay them in overcoming the optional subject (OS) phenomena (Ingham, 1992). A greater number of a
