Relationship between the multimodal linguistic matrix and joint attention of child with Down syndrome

Abstract

The Down syndrome is a genetic condition resulting from the extra presence of a chromosome 21, which can lead to various health problems such as heart disease and delay in language development. Children with the syndrome have more deficits in expressive language, while comprehension and gestural communication is more developed. Thus, this study aimed to analyze the relationship between language productions and joint attention of a child with Down syndrome in speech-language therapy process. We have worked with a hypothesis that linguistic productions and joint attention develop mutually. For this, the speech-language therapy of a boy with Down syndrome who was 16 months old at the beginning of the collection of the data and had a congenital heart defect was filmed weekly, for a year. Subsequently, the videos were analyzed in the ELAN program in order to quantitatively describe the vocal and gestural productions, and children's joint attention. It was found that the speech-language therapy favored the development of the child's language with Down syndrome, especially the vocal productions (p=0.04), and that there was a mutual growth between gestural production (p=0.001) and joint attention of the child. Thus, with the delay in the development of verbal language, the gestural productions of the child with DS favored its inclusion in joint attention scenes.