In Memory - Prof. Dr. Horst Gundermann

In normal language development the receptive vocabulary is always better than the productive vocabulary. In children with Down syndrome a specific discrepancy is suspected with a conspicuously weak productive vocabulary. The aim of this study was to examine whether this discrepancy is specific for children with Down syndrome compared to children with other mental disabilities. The study compared 22 children. 11 of them had Down syndrome, the other 11 had mental disabilities of comparable severity. The children were between 7;5 and 14;1 years old. In both groups productive and receptive vocabulary, as well as phonological and visual working memory, were assessed. The discrepancy between receptive and productive vocabulary was not larger for children with Down syndrome than for the control group. Furthermore, children with Down syndrome performed significantly worse in both parts of vocabulary than the control group. No specific discrepancy could be found. The results indicate that the low vocabulary of children with Down syndrome can be explained by a reduced phonological working memory.