Clinical trial NCT00952354: Oral Language in Children With Down Syndrome
Official title: Oral Language in Children With Down Syndrome: Lexical, Syntactic and Semantic Aspects
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Conditions: Down Syndrome
Keywords: Down syndrome
MLU
language development
language assessment
Lead sponsor: University of Sao Paulo
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
First posted: 2009-08-06
Enrollment: 60
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 3
Maximum age (years): 10
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: CROSS_SECTIONAL
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: 60 children with Down syndrome aged from 3 to 10 years

Brief summary: The objective of this research is to verify the language of children with Down syndrome concerning lexical, syntactic and semantic aspects using MLU. The hypothesis is that children with Down syndrome will present low performance, regarding not only the quantitative measures as MLU-m, MLU-w, GM-1 and GM-2, but also regarding the qualitative aspects of their production, when compared to children with typical development.

Detailed description: One of the alternatives to observe and assess language development and language disorders is to analyze spontaneous language samples, which allos the identification of qualitative and quantitative aspects. The analysis involves the MLU-morphemes, MLU-words and words classes. All words produced are analyzed, including interjections, adverbs and adjectives.Word classes with grammatical characteristics present lower averages, as prepositions and conjunctions. Reference parameters are the ones of the spoken language. The objective assessment with qualitative and quantitative data may help the speech and language pathologist/therapist to determine therapeutic guidelines to each patient.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* genetic diagnosis of Down syndrome
* good health conditions
* normal results on audiologic evaluation
* pediatric and ear, nose and throat periodic check ups.
* attend speech-language therapy at the Speech Language Pathology Laboratory in Syndromes and Sensorimotor Deficits (SLPL-SSD) of the School of Medicine of the University of São Paulo.

Exclusion Criteria:

* submission to long term hospitalizations due to heart diseases and major respiratory airway infections, that may interfere in the child's global development
* presence of visual or auditory important deficits

Primary outcomes:
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Sao Paulo
country: Brazil
facility: University of Sao Paulo - School of Medicine - Department of Physiotherapy, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Occupational Therapy
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Sao Paulo
name: Suelly CO Limongi, PhD
role: STUDY_CHAIR
affiliation: University of Sao Paulo
name: Rosangela V Andrade, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: University of Sao Paulo
name: Fabiola C Flabiano, PhD student
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: University of Sao Paulo
name: Porto Eliza, Ms student
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: University of Sao Paulo
name: Angela MA Carvalho, Ms student
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Limongi SC, Oliveira Ede F, Ienne LM, Andrade RV, Carvalho AM. The use of nouns and verbs by children with Down syndrome in two different situations. Codas. 2013;25(3):262-7. doi: 10.1590/s2317-17822013000300012. English, Portuguese.
citation: Marques SF, Limongi SC. [Mean length utterance (MLU) as a measure of language development of children with Down syndrome]. J Soc Bras Fonoaudiol. 2011;23(2):152-7. doi: 10.1590/s2179-64912011000200012. Portuguese.