Pragmatic and Semantic Contributions to Social Cognitive Development in Children with Down syndrome

This study sought to investigate how children with Down syndrome (DS) develop social cognition. This is an important topic because there have been few studies that have examined this as a developmental phenomena. The participants in the study were six families, three of these families had children 8-10 months of age and three had children between 16 and 18 months of age. Three of these infants were diagnosed with Down syndrome and three of them had no developmental issues. Data was collected using the MacArthur-Bates Development Inventories (Fenson, Marchman, Thal, Dale, Reznick & Bates, 2007) and a developmental questionnaire. The results found that in typically developing children, as language comprehension increased with age so did social cognitive intent. When Down syndrome participants were compared with their typically developing peers they comprehended considerably fewer words and produced fewer social intention items on the McArthur Bates Development Inventories. Children with Down syndrome develop much less language at the same time as their same aged peers and therefore develop social cognitive intent much later