The comprehension of wh -questions and passives in German children and adolescents with Down syndrome
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Eva Wimmer
Abstract
Children with Down syndrome (DS) have difficulty comprehending complex syntactic structures. Ring and Clahsen (2005) attribute these problems to a specific syntactic deficit that affects A(=argument) movement. We investigated the comprehension of passive sentences (A-movement) and wh-questions (wh-movement) in 22 German children and adolescents with DS compared to mental-age matched typically developing children. The results suggest that an impairment in the syntactic development affecting also wh-movement structures occurs in a substantial proportion of children with DS and exceeds their general cognitive disabilities. The error patterns of both tests reveal problems with non-canonical clauses and the use of the Agent-first strategy as in early stages of typical acquisition. Moreover, limitations in phonological working memory might contribute to syntactic processing problems in individuals with DS.
Abstract
Children with Down syndrome (DS) have difficulty comprehending complex syntactic structures. Ring and Clahsen (2005) attribute these problems to a specific syntactic deficit that affects A(=argument) movement. We investigated the comprehension of passive sentences (A-movement) and wh-questions (wh-movement) in 22 German children and adolescents with DS compared to mental-age matched typically developing children. The results suggest that an impairment in the syntactic development affecting also wh-movement structures occurs in a substantial proportion of children with DS and exceeds their general cognitive disabilities. The error patterns of both tests reveal problems with non-canonical clauses and the use of the Agent-first strategy as in early stages of typical acquisition. Moreover, limitations in phonological working memory might contribute to syntactic processing problems in individuals with DS.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Relative clauses
- Case(mis)matching in German free relative clauses in the self-paced reading paradigm 11
- Integrating the filler 35
- When initial thematic role attribution lingers 57
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Empty categories
- Brain responses elicited by implausible fillers and filled object gaps in German 75
- Gone with a trace? 91
- Priming paradigmatic gaps 117
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Determiner Phrases
- A good-enough representation is not good enough 137
- Processing of pronoun gender by Dutch-Russian simultaneous bilinguals 153
-
Language impairment
- A syntactically based treatment of relative clauses 177
- Language impairment in an Italian child with Trisomy X 209
- Sentence reading in older adults with and without Mild Cognitive Impairment 239
- The comprehension of wh -questions and passives in German children and adolescents with Down syndrome 279
- Index 303
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Relative clauses
- Case(mis)matching in German free relative clauses in the self-paced reading paradigm 11
- Integrating the filler 35
- When initial thematic role attribution lingers 57
-
Empty categories
- Brain responses elicited by implausible fillers and filled object gaps in German 75
- Gone with a trace? 91
- Priming paradigmatic gaps 117
-
Determiner Phrases
- A good-enough representation is not good enough 137
- Processing of pronoun gender by Dutch-Russian simultaneous bilinguals 153
-
Language impairment
- A syntactically based treatment of relative clauses 177
- Language impairment in an Italian child with Trisomy X 209
- Sentence reading in older adults with and without Mild Cognitive Impairment 239
- The comprehension of wh -questions and passives in German children and adolescents with Down syndrome 279
- Index 303
