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Verbal deficits in Down's syndrome and specificlanguage impairment: a comparisonGlynis Laws a; Dorothy V. M. Bishop aa Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford. Oxford. UK

To link to this article: DOI: 10.1080/13682820410001681207URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13682820410001681207

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Verbal deficits in Down’s syndrome andspecific language impairment: a comparison

Glynis Laws and Dorothy V. M. Bishop

Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

(Received 12 September 2003; accepted 13 February 2004)

Abstract

Background: Down’s syndrome is a chromosome disorder characterized by arange of physical and psychological conditions, including language impairment.The severity of impairment is variable, and some components of the languagesystem appear to be more affected than others. This description could alsobe applied to typically developing children diagnosed with specific languageimpairment.Aims: To compare findings from the largely separate research literatures onthese conditions, and to address the questions about whether the languagepathology associated with Down’s syndrome could be the same as thatdescribed as specific language impairment in typical development, and whetherthe two conditions could have similar causes.Main Contribution: Research studies suggest similar patterns of languageimpairment in the two populations, and some similarities in underlyingprocessing deficits.Conclusions: Future research should consider whether similarities in the languagebehaviours associated with Down’s syndrome and specific language impairmentcould be related to similarities at other levels of analysis, including neurologicaldevelopment and genetics.

Keywords: Down’s syndrome, specific language impairment, language disorders.

Introduction

Down’s syndrome (DS) is the most common biological cause of developmentaldelay with an incidence rate of around 1:1000 live births (Steele 1996). In 95–98%of cases, DS is caused by a trisomy resulting from non-disjunction of chromosome21 at meiosis. More rarely, it is the result of the translocation of chromosomematerial, or is due to mosaicism where an error has occurred during cell division inembryogenesis so that only a proportion of an individual’s cells is affected by thetrisomy. As well as various medical problems and moderate-to-severe levels oflearning disability, most people with DS face the challenge of language impairment.The present review explores the notion that this impairment mirrors that

International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders

ISSN 1368-2822 print/ISSN 1460-6984 online # 2004 Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals

DOI: 10.1080/13682820410001681207

Address correspondence to: Glynis Laws, Department of Experimental Psychology, University ofOxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3DU, UK; e-mail: glynis.laws@psy.ox.ac.uk

INT. J. LANG. COMM. DIS., OCTOBER–DECEMBER 2004,

VOL. 39, NO. 4, 423–451

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encountered in otherwise typically developing individuals diagnosed with specificlanguage impairment (SLI), and considers whether the language disorders couldhave similar causes.

At first glance, the differences between SLI and DS are far more evident thanthe similarities. Children with SLI, by definition, have no general cognitive delayand no obvious signs of neurological impairment. The diagnosis is made when achild has selective difficulties with language development that cannot be accountedfor in terms of low intelligence, hearing impairment, physical disabilities orabnormalities of the language-learning environment. Two-to-three times as manymales than females appear to be affected (Robinson 1991). Although SLI can occurin the absence of speech impairment, a proportion of children have both speechand language difficulties (e.g. Newcomer and Hammill 1988, Bishop et al. 1995,Conti-Ramsden and Botting 1999, Shriberg et al. 1999, Tomblin and Zhang 1999).

SLI has been regarded as evidence for the modularity of the developing cognitivesystem, as it demonstrates that one can have selective and severe impairments in thedomain of language despite apparently adequate non-verbal intellectual development. Agreat deal of research effort has focused on documenting the underlying nature oflanguage deficits in SLI, with researchers divided between those who attribute theproblems to impairment of a specialized language-learning module, and those whopropose impairments of more general perceptual or learning systems as the primarycause (Bishop 1997, Leonard 1998). In contrast, language impairment in DS hasattracted less research attention. It might be speculated that it was assumed that theverbal difficulties are an inevitable consequence of the physical characteristics andcognitive delay associated with this syndrome. However, relatively small contributions tolanguage variation in DS have been attributed to cognitive ability, hearing status, speechdifficulties, home environment or socio-economic factors (Wulpert et al. 1975, Miller1988, Chapman et al. 1991, Rondal 1995). Also, other syndromes that lead to equivalentlevels of non-verbal cognitive delay are not characterized by such severe languagedeficits—Williams syndrome is the clearest example, with several studies drawingexplicit comparisons with DS (e.g. Harris et al. 1997, Mervis and Bertrand 1997, Kleinand Mervis 1999, Mervis and Robinson 2000, also Lenneberg 1967, Tew 1979, Bellugiet al. 1988, Rondal 1995, Rondal and Edwards 1997, Abbeduto et al. 2001b). It isreasonable to conclude that language deficits in DS are not attributable to the learningdisability.

In explaining the reasons for language problems in DS, it is important toconsider the range as well as the average level of language skills. There is substantialunexplained variation in language development in DS, so that the chromosomeabnormality is insufficient in itself to account for language impairment. It isnecessary to look beyond the diagnosis of DS to establish the biological andenvironmental determinants of language difficulties in this population.

The review begins by presenting evidence for parallels in the language deficitsseen in DS and SLI. Many researchers have argued that the study of individualsfollowing atypical pathways of development can inform one’s understanding ofnormal development (e.g. Lenneberg 1967, Cicchetti 1984, Rondal and Edwards1997, Nadel 1999, Abbeduto et al. 2001a). The usual approach is to focus on thedissociation of functions in groups with different genetic syndromes (Tager-Flusberg 1999, Dykens and Hodapp 2001). It is argued that it could be informativeto extend this approach to a comparison of language pathology in otherwise normaldevelopment with what could be the same pathology combined with a known

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genetic disorder such as DS. Observation of connections between different aspectsof the language system, or between language and other domains, where these aredeveloping under different conditions, could help clarify the nature of functionalrelationships. It could also provide more compelling evidence for causalconnections between language impairment and underlying capacities or processesthan can be provided by observations under just one condition.

A further motivation for comparing the nature of language impairment in thesetwo populations is the question of whether phenotypic similarities between DS andSLI could reflect neurological and/or genotypic commonalities between thesedisorders. Over the past decade there has been mounting evidence for a substantialgenetic contribution to SLI (for a review, see Bishop 2001a), but little is knownabout which genes are implicated and how they influence brain development. It isplausible that different genetic mechanisms in DS and SLI lead to similarneurological consequences, and hence affect language learning. A more radicalpossibility is that trisomy in DS affects the expression of genes that normallyinfluence rate of language acquisition, and thus by studying genetic variationassociated with language ability in DS one might gain understanding of geneticinfluence on SLI. This is an important question for the future, but before it can beaddressed, it is one that first requires careful comparison of the languagephenotypes associated with these conditions.

Language in DS and SLI: a comparison

Before embarking on a comparative review of these disorders, it is necessary tograpple with the issue of heterogeneity in SLI. Unlike DS, which can be defined interms of objective physical criteria, SLI is diagnosed purely in terms of behaviouralcharacteristics. Furthermore, this is largely a diagnosis by exclusion: many of thedefining characteristics state what is not wrong with the child, rather thandescribing positive diagnostic features. It is perhaps not surprising to find thatchildren who are included under the umbrella of SLI can be quite diverse inpresentation. Before one can ask whether the language characteristics of SLI aresimilar to those in DS, it needs to be stated what kind of SLI is of concern. This iscomplicated by the fact that although most experts agree that SLI is heterogeneous,there is little consensus about how it should be subclassified. In general, in arguingfor similarities between SLI and DS, focus will be on what might be regarded as‘typical’ SLI, in which the most obvious difficulties experienced by the child arewith structural aspects of language, i.e. phonology and syntax (Conti-Ramsdenand Botting 1999). While accepting that boundaries between subtypes of SLIare difficult to draw, and most research samples contain a mixture of children,conclusions are not expected to apply to those children who have disproportionatedifficulties with social use of language (so-called pragmatic language impairment;Bishop 2000).

Table 1 lists four characteristics of typical SLI. The following sections describeeach of these and consider how far each applies also to DS.

Language delay in relation to non-verbal ability

Poor language skill in relation to non-verbal ability is a defining feature of SLI.Because children with DS function at an overall level comparable with that of

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a much younger child, it was for many years not appreciated that they usuallyhad disproportionate problems with language. However, several studies clearlydemonstrate that when abilities are considered in terms of developmental level (i.e.the age at which a normally developing child would achieve that skill), spokenlanguage lags behind non-verbal ability (e.g. Chapman et al. 1991, 1998). Expressivelanguage is commonly assessed by mean length of utterance (MLU), a measurebased on the total number of words, or number of words plus additionalmorphemes (e.g. verb inflections), produced in a conversational speech sample ornarrative sample (Brown 1973). Expressive language deficits are indicated in DSand in SLI by lower MLUs than would be expected based on chronological age(CA) or mental age (MA). The MLUs of individuals with DS are also significantlylower than those of MA-matched controls with other intellectual impairments(Rosin et al. 1988).

Implicit in the term ‘language delay’ is the notion that language acquisition is ona normal developmental trajectory, but proceeding at an unusually slow rate. If onetakes ‘delay’ literally, it might be expected that the same endpoint of competencewould be reached, but at a later age. Although some language experts have cited DSas exemplifying delayed rather than deviant language development (e.g. Lenneberg1967), systematic studies suggest that neither SLI nor DS can be so simplyconceptualized. Delayed onset of language is a consistent feature of SLI (Leonard1998), but outcomes for children are variable. In some cases, language does seemto be simply delayed, and problems resolve over time (Bishop and Edmundson1987a, Bishop and Adams 1990, Thal et al. 1991, Whitehurst et al. 1991b, Paul1993), particularly those predominantly affecting speech (Griffiths 1969, Hall andTomblin 1978, Bishop and Adams 1990). However, there are poorer outcomes forchildren with more severe problems, especially when these include comprehensiondifficulties (Bishop and Adams 1990), or where there is a family history of languageimpairment (Whitehurst et al. 1991a). These difficulties can continue into teenageyears (Aram et al. 1984, Johnson et al. 1999) and early adulthood (Tomblin et al.1992). Even when overt language problems have resolved, residual evidence forthem can persist as phonological memory deficits (Bishop et al. 1996a), poorphonological awareness (Goulandris et al. 2000) or reading disability (Stothard et al.1998, Bishop 2001b).

There is also delayed onset of language for many children with DS (Fowler1990), although some children start to talk at the time expected for typical children(Chapman 1995, Berglund et al. 2001). Some research shows that rates of progressare uneven and often interrupted in middle childhood by developmental plateaux(Fowler 1988). These might apply more to grammar than to vocabulary acquisition(e.g. Laws and Gunn 2004). However, although language status can remain fixedfor some time, other evidence points to further progress in language developmentin late adolescence or early adulthood (Chapman et al. 2002, Fowler 1995). There is

Table 1. General descriptions applicable to SLI

Language acquisition is delayed in relation to non-verbal abilityLanguage impairment cannot be accounted for by known medical or environmental causesExpressive language is more severely affected than receptive languageGrammatical components of the language system tend to be most vulnerable to delays and difficulties

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wide variation in individual language progress and the levels of language skilleventually reached. Some exceptional individuals with DS achieve almost normallanguage (Rondal 1995), but Fowler (1990) reports that the majority achieve levelsof language production that would be expected of children under three years. Thereis a somewhat brighter picture for language comprehension, which is less severelyaffected than expressive language (see below). However, although receptivevocabulary is often commensurate with, or in excess of non-verbal abilities,grammar understanding is below the level that would be expected based on non-verbal ability.

Another implication of ‘delay’ is that the profile of language skills is equivalentto that of a younger, normally developing child. In other words, the onset oflanguage may be delayed but thereafter follows the same developmental pathway.Although many linguistic features of the language produced by children with SLIare consistent with MLU (Leonard 1998), some aspects of language differ incomparison to MLU-matched controls. For example, a more limited range of verbsmay be used (Watkins et al. 1993), and there may be significant differences in thecorrect use of certain grammatical morphemes (Rice and Wexler 1996). Theselinguistic features illustrate an essential difference between children with SLI andyounger children with the same MLU, suggesting that the former are not simplyfollowing a slower version of the normal developmental pathway. A similar pictureemerges from research on DS, with limited use of verbs (Hesketh and Chapman2000), and evidence for specific morphological deficits (e.g. Chapman et al. 1998,Eadie et al. 2002, Laws and Bishop 2003). The acquisition of morphologicalfeatures in SLI and DS will be described further below.

Lack of association with medical or environmental causes

When diagnosing SLI, one excludes children for whom there are medical orenvironmental factors that could account for the language impairment. In contrast,there is usually a host of risk factors that could plausibly affect the languagedevelopment of children with DS, including hearing loss (both conductive andsensorineural), and structural and neurological impairments of the speechapparatus. In addition, some people with DS are raised in relatively unstimulatinginstitutional environments; perhaps, more so in the past. Given these factors, itcould be concluded that it is hardly surprising that language is poor in DS.However, this conclusion does appear misguided, given research that shows thatmedical and environmental risk factors cannot account for all the variance inlanguage skills in DS.

Hearing loss is perhaps the most obvious potential cause of languageimpairment in DS. Between 40 and 85% or more of individuals have impairedhearing (Dahle and McCollister 1986, Davies 1996, Roizen 1997), with severeimpairments in 10–15% (Marcell and Cohen 1992, Marcell 1995, Davies 1996). Inyounger children, the problem is generally attributed to conductive hearing lossassociated with glue ear and frequent middle ear infections (e.g. Cunningham andMcArthur 1981). However, using auditory brainstem responses, Roizen et al. (1993)recorded nearly as many children with sensorineural losses as with conductivelosses, and a similar number presented a combination of these problems. Otherreports suggest that sensorineural losses appear in late adolescence (e.g. Widen et al.1987). These losses may become worse in middle age (Evenhuis et al. 1992).

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Evidence for the effect of hearing loss on language development in DS isinconsistent. Some research finds no significant correlation between these functions(e.g. Miller 1988, Marcell 1995, Jarrold and Baddeley 1997). Other researchreports that only a small percentage of the variability in language performancecan be attributed to hearing loss. For example, Chapman has reported hearingloss to account for between 4 and 7% of the variance in adolescents’ grammarcomprehension scores (Chapman et al. 1991, 1998). However, individuals withmore than mild hearing loss had been excluded from this sample. Laws (2004)found that although there was no significant correlation between average hearingthreshold and MLU in a group of adolescents with DS, hearing did discriminatebetween participants who produced an intelligible narrative from which MLUcould be derived and those excluded from the analysis because narrativeswere unintelligible. In the same sample, hearing threshold was also related tovariation in receptive and expressive vocabulary scores, but not to grammarcomprehension (Laws and Gunn 2004). Hearing loss clearly contributes tolanguage outcomes in DS but, since individuals with good hearing neverthelesshave language impairment, it is fair to say that language deficits in DS cannotbe attributed to poor hearing.

Poor language-learning environment is an exclusionary factor in the diagnosisof SLI, but it is not so easy to rule out in the case of DS. Historically, indirectevidence for environmental effects on language in DS comes from comparison ofearly studies of institutionalized children compared with later studies focusing onchildren raised at home. Not unexpectedly, developmental outcomes for earliercohorts were less favourable than for later cohorts raised in families (e.g. Shotwelland Shipe 1964). More recently, improved health care and education mean thatone’s expectations of the developmental potential of people with DS are nowhigher than in the past (Wishart 1998). Although it is not yet clear what effect thismay have on language development, a selective approach to the literature has beenadopted in this review, concentrating on studies of more recent cohorts (forreviews of language development in DS, see Gibson 1978, Gunn 1985, Miller 1987,1988, 1999, Mervis 1988, Dodd and Leahy 1989, Fowler 1990, 1995, Chapman1995, 1997, Chapman et al. 1991, Rondal 1995, Gunn and Crombie 1996, Stoel-Gammon 1997, Tager-Flusberg 1999).

Expressive versus receptive language

Although it is traditional to make a distinction between expressive and expressive–receptive forms of SLI (World Health Organisation 1992, American PsychiatricAssociation 1994), Bishop (1979) argued that most children with SLI can be shownto have some level of receptive impairment when appropriate tests are used.Nevertheless, it is usually the case that expressive problems are more marked thanreceptive difficulties. This is clearly shown when studies report composite measuresbased on standard scores (e.g. Montgomery 2000, McArthur and Hogben 2001).Early expressive language ability is also an important predictor of later languageoutcomes in children with SLI (Bishop and Edmondson 1987a, Davison andHowlin 1997, Botting et al. 2001).

The picture of disproportionately poor expressive language is mirrored in DS(Gibson 1978, Cunningham et al. 1985, Miller 1988, 1999, Mundy et al. 1988,

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Beeghley et al. 1990, Chapman et al. 1991, 1998, Dykens et al. 1994, Fowler et al.1994, Casselli et al. 1998, Laws and Bishop 2003). Since DS is recognized frombirth, the divergence of expressive language from comprehension can be chartedfrom an early age. Miller (1999) has studied the longitudinal development oflanguage comprehension and production skills relative to other cognitive abilitiesfor young children with DS using parent reports (MacArthur CommunicativeDevelopment Inventories; Fenson et al. 1993). These studies show that languageproduction fails to keep pace with increases in MA, but language comprehension iscloser to the level expected for MA. After 37 months MA (about half CA), thelanguage production skills of 92–100% of the children lagged general cognitiveability by at least 6 months.

The gap between production and comprehension continues to grow throughoutchildhood and adolescence (Chapman et al. 1991, 1998), and expressive languagecontinues out of line with cognitive impairment. MLU is significantly lower thanmental age-matched controls with other intellectual impairments (Rosin et al. 1988).As for children with SLI, there are also differences between individuals with DSand younger typically developing controls with the same MLU. However, unlikechildren with SLI, these comparisons are not all unfavourable since individuals withDS often have larger vocabularies than younger MLU-matched controls (e.g. Harris1983). Laws and Bishop (2003) directly compared the language profiles of a groupof adolescents with DS with those for MA-matched groups of younger childrenwith SLI and typically developing children. The groups with DS and SLI had verysimilar language profiles. In both language-impaired groups, expressive languagewas more severely affected than language comprehension relative to the typicallydeveloping group.

Grammatical difficulties

In both populations, asymmetries in the growth of different aspects of language aremanifested as specific weakness in grammar combined with relative strength invocabulary (SLI: Aram et al. 1984, Gopnik 1990, Tomblin and Zhang 1999, DS:Fowler 1990, 1995, Chapman et al. 1991, Chapman 1995, Rondal 1995, Gunn andCrombie 1996, Tager-Flusberg 1999, Laws and Bishop 2003). Tomblin and Zhang(1999) screened over 7000 US kindergarten children, classifying those scoring morethan 1.25 SD below children of the same CA on at least two composite languagescores as language impaired. These children had non-verbal IQs above 87 and noadditional developmental problems. They were compared with control childrenwho passed the language screening, and to another group that also had lowlanguage scores but were in addition more generally delayed. Tomblin and Zhang(1999) found a composite grammar score, based on tests of expression andcomprehension, was most likely to be failed, and that very few children hadunaffected grammar alongside low vocabulary and narrative scores. Similar patternsof performance in children with low IQ were obtained.

DS research indicates a similar pattern of specific strengths and weaknessesrelative to general cognitive ability (Fowler 1990, 1995, Chapman 1995, Rondal1995, Gunn and Crombie 1996), and relative to the performance of individualswith other syndromes (e.g. Harris et al. 1997, Tager-Flusberg 1999, Abbeduto et al.2001b). Deficits in morphological development are indicated by significantly less

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use of free grammatical morphemes than MLU matched controls, and less reliableuse of bound morphemes (Chapman et al. 1998). The most severely disadvantagedaspect of language for people with DS seems to be the production of complexsyntactic structures (Chapman et al. 1998), although recent research suggests thatthe content of sentences may be in line with MLU (Thordardottir et al. 2002). Theacquisition and use of grammar is poorer than would be predicted from non-verbalabilities (Fowler 1990, Chapman 1995, Abbeduto et al. 2001b), but receptivevocabulary may be better than cognitive abilities would predict (e.g. Chapman1995), and can exceed that of non-disabled children of comparable MA or MLU(Barrett and Diniz 1989). Although morphosyntactic development may reach aceiling, continued vocabulary growth results in a gradual divergence of vocabularyfrom grammar knowledge with CA (Chapman et al. 1993, Fowler 1995, Laws andGunn 2004). Fowler (1995) reported that her entire sample of 31 adolescents hadhigher levels of vocabulary than grammar understanding. Although few studiescomment on individual profiles, group means usually indicate significant differencesbetween levels of receptive vocabulary and grammar comprehension (Miller 1987,1988, Rosin et al. 1988, Fowler 1990, Chapman et al. 1991, Chapman 1995, Laws1998, Laws and Bishop 2003, Laws and Gunn 2004).

In Laws and Bishop’s (2003) direct comparison of language profiles in DSand SLI, there was marked dissociation between grammar understanding andreceptive vocabulary in both populations, relative to controls. Whereas grammarwas poor, receptive vocabulary scores did not differ significantly from those of thetypically developing comparison group. This was the pattern of results forexpressive language scores as well as language comprehension scores. However,there is some question about whether grammar comprehension is as severelyaffected as its expression in other studies of SLI or DS. For example, although thecomposite grammar score reported in Tomblin and Zhang’s (1999) study of SLIindicated an overall weakness in grammar, separate test scores suggested thatgrammar comprehension as well as vocabulary comprehension was a relativestrength for the language delayed children, and that any weakness in grammar wasassociated with expressed language. However, this may not be the case for allchildren with SLI. Other studies show that children can have difficulties inunderstanding grammatical constructions as well as in making correct use of themin speech (Bishop 1979, 1982, Adams 1990, Van der Lely and Stollwerck 1996).These differences between study findings could be related to different means ofascertainment or to different assessment instruments. The criteria employed byTomblin and Zhang (1999) would have identified some children with simplelanguage delay whose problems would resolve and who would not go on todevelop SLI. Children with longer lasting problems of SLI do have grammarcomprehension difficulties more often.

In DS, most studies report levels of grammar comprehension below those ofnon-verbal ability (Bridges and Smith 1984, Rosin et al. 1988, Buckley 1993, 1995,Laws 1998, Laws et al. 2000, Vicari et al. 2000, Laws and Gunn 2004). Chapman et al.(1991) reported grammar comprehension in line with non-verbal ability, but thiswas probably because the non-verbal measure incorporated a test of short-termmemory, itself a core deficit associated with the syndrome. Chapman (1995)suggests that it is only in adolescence that syntax comprehension begins to fallbehind that of MA controls. However, characteristics of study samples other than

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CA may be important. Since there is a higher ceiling on non-verbal ability than ongrammar comprehension, findings may depend on the proportion of a sampleachieving high non-verbal scores. The higher the reported mean non-verbal scorefor a research sample, the less likely it is that the age equivalent score for grammarcomprehension will equal it. It is true that this situation will more often apply toolder study groups, but other factors such as school placement might also influencefindings (e.g. Laws et al. 2000).

Morphological development

Rice and Wexler (1996) have argued that clinical observation of the use ofgrammatical morphemes provides a more sensitive test of SLI than a considerationof language profiles. Late acquisition of grammatical morphemes is characteristicof SLI (Johnston and Schery 1976, Khan and James 1983, Johnston and Khami1984, Leonard et al. 1988, Bliss 1989, Marchman et al. 1999). Children with SLIdo not find all grammatical morphemes difficult to acquire (Rice et al. 1998), butthere is regularity in the morphemes that children do find difficult, and these tendto be the ones that young normally developing children are slow to use consistently.A period of inconsistent usage of correct grammatical forms in normaldevelopment is referred to as an ‘optional infinitive’ stage and, because childrenwith SLI are so slow to move out of this stage, Rice and colleagues refer to an‘extended optional infinitive’ stage. For example, there is little variability in the useof verb tense markers by normal 5-year-olds, but children with SLI struggle toacquire correct use of the past tense and third person singular ‘s’, and this difficultycan be persistent (Rice and Wexler 1996, Rice et al. 1998, Van der Lely and Ullman2001, Conti-Ramsden and Windfuhr 2002). The problem does not appear to be dueto poor perception of speech sounds for these morphemes. Some reports find thatthird person singular ‘s’ is affected, but children have no apparent difficulty inacquiring plural ‘s’, which should be no more easily perceived (Oetting and Rice1993).

The sensitivity and specificity of tense marking as a test to identify childrenwith language impairments has been demonstrated in studies to compare theperformance of 5-year-old children with SLI to CA-matched controls. Whenchildren who used correct tense markers less than 80% of the time were classifiedas disordered, 97% of cases of SLI were correctly identified, and 98% of controls(Rice and Wexler 1996). Poor performance by children with SLI persisted up to 8years of age, and although there was some improvement, there was no evidencethat they caught up controls (Rice et al. 1998). Further, children with SLI are poorat identifying, as well as using, correct tense markers (Rice et al. 1999b). Rice (2000)suggests that these properties of the tests for grammatical markers, together withthe poor relationships found between them and environmental factors such asmother’s education (Rice et al. 1999a), make them strong candidates for identifyingcases of SLI for genetic study. However, note that when past tense and noun pluraltasks have been used with children with SLI under 5-years-old, they have notperformed as satisfactory clinical risk markers (Conti-Ramsden and Hesketh 2003).

The acquisition and use of morphemes has been studied in DS. As in SLI, thereis some evidence that particular morphemes may be more difficult to acquire thanothers (Rondal and Lambert 1983, Sabsay and Kernan 1993, Rutter and Buckley1994, Chapman et al. 1998, Eadie et al. 2002, Laws and Bishop 2003). Rutter and

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Buckley (1994) investigated the acquisition of fourteen morphemes by twelveyoung children with DS, by asking parents to record monthly diaries over two tothree years. After taking into account the delayed production of first words by thechildren with DS, the children’s acquisition of most of these morphemes waswithin range of the three typically developing children studied by Brown (1973),although they were not acquired in the same order. However, three rules werenever grasped by any of the children: the uncontractable copula ‘be’ form (e.g. ‘heis’ in response to ‘who’s there?’), the uncontractable auxiliary ‘be’ form (‘he is’ inresponse to ‘who’s coming to the party?’), and third person singular ‘s’ for presenttense verbs. Irregular third person present tense (e.g. ‘Mummy has’ or ‘Mummydoes’) was acquired by just one child. These rules are also reported as difficult forchildren with SLI.

Chapman et al. (1998) reported that regular past tense ‘ed’ as well as plural ‘s’,noun possessive ‘s’, third person singular ‘s’, contractible auxiliaries and copulas,and present progressive ‘ing’ were frequently omitted from the language producedby their sample of 5–20-year-olds with DS. However, many of these individualshad MLUs below 4.5, the stage at which these bound morphemes are expectedto appear in normal development. Some adolescents with DS with MLU above4.5 may make more normal use of third person singular and past tense verbs(Laws and Bishop 2003). Other research involving adults with DS shows persistentuse of telegraphic speech, with poor use of verb tense inflections, and few articles,prepositions, pronouns, copulas, or conjunctions (Rondal and Lambert 1983).Sabsay and Kernan (1993) found that, unlike adults with intellectual disability ofunknown origin, adults with DS fail to master the use of auxiliary verbs, suggestingthat the difficulties are a feature of DS rather than of intellectual impairmentmore generally. Eadie et al. (2002) directly compared the acquisition of morphemesby MLU-matched groups of children with SLI, DS and typically developingchildren. Although both language-impaired groups were limited in their acquisi-tion of specific morphemes relative to the comparison group, they did notresemble each other in the patterns of morpheme use. Laws and Bishop (2003)noted that differences in the morphological difficulties of each groupwere possibly related to the stronger vocabulary skills of the DS group in thestudy.

Table 1 described some general features of SLI. The above sections expandedon these descriptions for SLI and investigated the extent to which they apply alsoto DS. It is argued that these comparisons show that the language characteristics ofthese conditions are very similar in terms of surface descriptions. Of course, similarsurface descriptions do not necessarily mean that the impairments arise fromthe same underlying causes. It is possible that common profiles of languagedevelopment occur because the affected components are simply those mostvulnerable to any sort of risk factor, and that DS is just an additional, if powerful,risk factor. Such an account would not necessarily mean that people with DSshould also resemble those with SLI in terms of deficits to underlying capacities orprocesses. An alternative account could be developed around the idea that peoplewith DS have language profiles similar to SLI because they are prone to the sameunderlying difficulties hypothesized to cause SLI, whether these are biological orenvironmental in origin. The next step in this enquiry is to consider whether thesimilarities observed are superficial or whether they could be explained by similardeficiencies in underlying capacities or processes.

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Implications for understanding of processes involved inlanguage acquisition

Consideration of underlying causes bears on the more fundamental question ofwhich theoretical account can best explain language impairment. An emphasis onpoor grammatical development in SLI, and the background to the tests ofmorphology described above, arises from a linguistic deficit theory. Given theimportance of difficulties in acquiring specific grammatical morphemes in thisaccount of SLI, it could be important to establish that the same morphemes posedifficulties for people with DS if the pathology is to be shown to mirror SLI.A more general difficulty with the acquisition of morphology could indicate adifferent type of disorder, or perhaps one that arises from one or more differentunderlying problems, such as hearing impairment. Despite the evidence formorphological deficits described above, more direct comparisons of the linguisticfeatures of DS and SLI may be necessary to be confident about a correspondencebetween them at this level.

The linguistic-deficit account contrasts with more psychologically basedaccounts which view language impairment as secondary to underlying processingdeficits. Table 2 lists hypotheses that have been advanced to explain SLI in terms ofunderlying processes, including auditory processing deficits, poor phonologicalmemory skills, motor development delays and atypical cerebral specialization. Givenheterogeneity in the manifestation of SLI it seems unlikely that a single explanationwill suffice, and it is also likely that deficits in underlying processes differentiallyaffect the various components of language. The differential effects of multiplecauses on multiple components of a language system could explain the heterogeneityevident in the language profiles of people with SLI (Bishop 2001a).

Modular approaches to understanding language treat subdomains of languageas separate components, depending on separate neurobiological substrates. Thisapproach distinguishes between computational and conceptual aspects of language(e.g. Chomsky 1980, Tager-Flusberg 1997). The computational component includesthe hierarchical processes associated with phonological and syntactic development,and is distinguished from a conceptual component on which depend lexical andsemantic aspects of language. These components may be differentially affected bydeficits in underlying capacities, and be more or less vulnerable to genetic andenvironmental risks. Chomsky (1986) suggested that biological constraints are moreimportant in limiting syntactic development, but that environment may be moreinfluential in determining other aspects of language such as the lexicon. Forexample, increases in vocabulary depend on exposure to experiences provided bythe environment. Given intact biological functions to support vocabulary learning,variation in the numbers of words acquired is likely to depend on experience. Incontrast, if biological deficits impose the major limitation on syntactic development

Table 2. Underlying processes associated with SLI

Deficits in auditory processing abilityPoor phonological short-term memoryDeficits in motor developmentAtypical patterns of cerebral specialization

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then poor syntactic development could be the outcome whatever the environmentprovides.

In normal development, language acquisition proceeds in an integrated fashion,and in line with non-verbal cognitive abilities, resulting in flat developmentalprofiles. When something goes wrong, the dislocation of functions can result in thegrowth of uneven profiles. Uneven language profiles are a feature of many geneticsyndromes and disorders, and contrasting profiles based on dissociations offunctions have been established between conditions (e.g. Tager-Flusberg et al.1990). As argued herein, the language profiles in DS and in typical SLI showmarked impairment of computational processes alongside relatively intactconceptual aspects of language. If there should be similar patterns of strengthand weakness in terms of underlying capacities or processes, and these can beassociated with the same aspects of language development in both conditions, thiswould provide further evidence for a common language impairment.

Auditory processing deficits

Clearly, any disruption of normal processing of language sounds could be expectedto affect language development. One major difference between SLI and DS is thatwhereas hearing problems are excluded as a cause of SLI, hearing losses arecommon in children with DS (see above). However, defective peripheral hearing isnot the only way in which auditory processing can be disrupted and major effortshave been devoted to identifying defects in higher level auditory processes toaccount for SLI (e.g. Tallal and Piercy 1973a, Tallal 1976, Tallal et al. 1981, Nevilleet al. 1993, Wright et al. 1997, McArthur and Hogben 2001). Whether difficulties liein the perception of sounds by the ear or in the processing of speech sounds by thebrain, the effects on language outcomes could be similar. Despite different historiesin terms of hearing loss, it is reasonable to compare the two populations in termsof possible relationships between auditory processing and language development.

An auditory temporal processing deficit in SLI is said to result in impaireddiscrimination of rapid or briefly presented non-speech sounds, even when there isno problem differentiating the same stimuli presented more slowly or for longerduration (e.g. Tallal and Piercy 1973a, b). It is argued that this deficit makes itdifficult for children to discriminate between consonants that differ by just a briefpart of the acoustic signal, and leads to problems in acquiring the phonologyessential to the development of spoken language (Tallal 2000). Despite extensiveexperimental evidence to support this hypothesis, there are many contrary reportsand conflicting evidence arising from methodological problems associated with theexperiments and from individual differences within samples of people with SLI(McArthur and Bishop 2001).

While it is possible to speculate that similar problems could account for slowacquisition of phonology in DS, attempts to study higher level auditory perceptionin this population are problematic due to difficulties in explaining the tasks toparticipants, and the fact that the tasks can impose a memory load beyond thecapacity of many people with DS. Further, since hearing losses are common in DS,it could be difficult to differentiate high level processing effects from peripheraldeficits. However, Marcell and Cohen (1992) and Marcell (1995) used a procedureinvolving backward masking to assess the identification of words by people withDS. Presentation of stimulus words was followed by a burst of white noise

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presented after intervals of varying duration. The task is analogous to one used todetect deficits in auditory temporal processing in SLI where backward masking isused to manipulate the time available for the detection of a non-verbal stimulustone (e.g. Wright et al. 1997). Children with SLI have higher thresholds fordetecting a tone than control children, i.e. to make a correct response, they requireto hear more of the tone before the masking noise appears. Marcell (1995) foundthat adolescents with DS identified fewer words than adolescents from a matchedgroup with other intellectual impairments when the words were followed by amasking noise after 40 ms. They did not differ from the comparison group whenthe masking noise appeared after 320 ms, giving them longer to identify the word.However, much of the difficulty with the 40 ms condition could be attributed tohearing losses. Individuals with bilateral hearing losses identified significantlyfewer words than a subgroup of adolescents with DS with normal hearing in one orboth ears. Poor hearing was not a factor in the identification of words in the320 ms condition. Marcell and Cohen (1992) suggest that the poor performance ofthe hearing impaired group in the 40 ms condition might be attributed to thecombined effects of low auditory acuity and slow processing speed. Clearly,further experiments would be required to establish whether people with DS havethe same kind of auditory temporal processing deficit that is thought to be a featureof SLI.

Phonological memory deficits

A more established similarity between DS and SLI is the occurrence of poorphonological memory, or memory for speech sounds. Phonological memory isthought to be functionally important for the normal development of language(Gathercole and Baddeley 1993, Baddeley et al. 1998), and language development isslower in children with poor phonological memory (e.g. Gathercole et al. 1992).This relationship has been studied extensively by Gathercole and her colleaguesusing non-word repetition, a task which assesses the accuracy with which unfamiliarbut word-like phoneme sequences such as ballop or blonterstaping are repeated. Thetask may reflect the role of phonological memory in mediating the development oflong-term representations as the lexicon grows. Phonological memory may also beimportant for the acquisition of grammar by allowing multiword utterances to bemaintained while the long term representations of abstract syntactic rules areconstructed (Speidel 1989, 1993, Baddeley et al. 1998). This process allows childrento acquire templates of syntactic constructions used in adult speech that can bedrawn on to support their own spoken output.

Children with SLI find the non-word repetition task difficult, especially whenasked to repeat long non-words (Kamhi and Catts 1986, Gathercole and Baddeley1990, Bishop et al. 1995, 1996a, Montgomery 1995, 2000, Dollaghan and Campbell1998, Edwards and Lahey 1998, Ellis Weismer et al. 2000, Conti-Ramsden andHesketh 2003). Bishop et al. (1996a) administered the task to twins, at least one ofwhom had experienced speech or language disorder in the past. Non-wordrepetition was impaired even for individuals whose language problems hadresolved. This could indicate that these individuals had been able to compensate insome way for poor phonological memory, and so achieve normal language skills,but that the underlying phonological memory problem remained. In thisinterpretation of results, poor phonological memory is the cause of poor language,

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rather than a consequence of language problems. Conti-Ramsden and Hesketh(2003) found that poor non-word repetition was an accurate risk marker for SLI inyoung children, but cautioned that more research was necessary before any causalrelationship between poor phonological memory and language impairment could beestablished.

Phonological memory has also been described as a selective deficit in DS(Varnhagen et al. 1987, Hulme and Mackenzie 1992, Kay-Raining Bird andChapman 1994, Wang and Bellugi 1994, Fowler et al. 1995, Vicari et al. 1995, Jarroldand Baddeley 1997), and there is some evidence of a relationship between thisdeficit and language. Vallar and Papagno (1993) described a case of a young Italianwoman with DS with good vocabulary who, unusually for a person with thiscondition, also recorded a digit span within the normal range. Although this mightindicate that her good language was a consequence of spared short term memory,other studies report only a weak correlation between phonological memory andreceptive vocabulary, compared with that found in normal development (Hulmeand Mackenzie 1992), and some studies report no relationship (Marcell 1995,Jarrold and Baddeley 1997, Chapman et al. 2002). However, these researchersassessed phonological memory using digit span. When non-word repetition hasbeen used, significant correlations have been established between phonologicalmemory and language development (Laws 1998, 2004, Laws and Gunn 2004). In a5-year follow up study of 10–24-year-olds with DS, earlier phonological memoryscores predicted later receptive vocabulary and grammar comprehension (Laws andGunn 2004). The expressive language abilities of this sample were also assessed atthe end of this study. Fifty per cent of the variation in MLU and sentence recallwas attributed to non-word repetition scores, even after allowance was made forthe effects of CA, MA and word repetition (Laws 2004). Some researchers haveargued that this relationship is due to the common demands placed on outputprocesses by non-word repetition and expressive language tasks (e.g. Snowling et al.1991, Van der Lely and Howard 1993). If this was the case, the correlation betweenverbal memory and expressive language should be abolished if a memory task isused which has no spoken language requirement (Adams and Gathercole 2000).However, just as Adams and Gathercole reported for typically developing children,Laws found that a verbal memory span task which required a pointing responsewas as strongly related to MLU and sentence recall as non-word repetition.

Interestingly, phonological memory has been linked not only to the languagephenotypes of SLI and DS but also to a genetic background in SLI. Bishop et al.’s(1995) analysis of twin data described earlier showed non-word repetition to be auseful phenotypic marker for inherited language impairment; MZ (identical) co-twins resembled each other more closely than DZ (non-identical) co-twins. A morerecent twin study replicated this finding of high heritability for non-word repetition(Bishop et al. 1999). In this study, Tallal’s repetition test was also administered(Tallal and Piercy 1973a), so that memory for speech sounds could be comparedwith memory for non-verbal tones. The results showed that although phonologicalmemory was under strong genetic influence there was no genetic influence on non-verbal auditory deficits. Instead, deficits in memory for tones were more subject toenvironmental influence. Since the children most affected by SLI in this study werethose who showed evidence of both deficits, Bishop et al. (1999) concluded that thedeficits act as independent risk factors and are most likely to cause SLI when theyoccur together. This could explain the high levels of language impairment in the

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DS population where probably a large majority of individuals have co-occurringauditory processing deficits and phonological memory deficits.

Association with deficits in motor development

Another factor worth exploring as a potential link between language impairment inSLI and DS is motor delay. Poor motor skills are often a problem for children withSLI (Hill 2001), and several studies have identified relationships between motordelay and language (e.g. Johnston et al. 1981, Bishop and Edmundson 1987b,Moore and Law 1990, Schwartz and Regan 1996, Owen and McKinlay 1997,Bishop 2002). Although some relationship between fine motor skill and speechmight be expected, on the basis that both depend on systems for motorprogramming and control, the interesting thing about some of these studies is thatmotor skills have been related to language comprehension. For example, Schwartzand Regan (1996) found that fine motor tasks requiring rapid timing and repetitivesequencing were strongly related to language comprehension measures in 4–8-year-olds with SLI. Some evidence that this association can be linked to heritable factorswas provided by Bishop (2002) who studied motor skill in the sample of twinsdescribed earlier (Bishop et al. 1995, 1996a). Motor skill, assessed using a simpletapping task, was significantly related to speech impairment but children with purelanguage impairments and unaffected speech also had motor deficits. There wasevidence for strong genetic effects on speech and language impairments and onmotor skill, and evidence that motor skill and language impairment (but not speechproblems) shared a common heritable factor.

Unfortunately, although delayed motor development is an invariable feature ofDS, there is little research to investigate relationships between motor skill andlanguage development. Studies of children with DS show that motor developmentfollows a normal sequence but remains below the level expected for MA (e.g. Frithand Frith 1974, Connolly et al. 1993, Reid and Block 1996, Jobling 1998, Torres andBuceta 1998). There is some evidence to link motor skill with vocal features. As intypical development, there is synchrony in the onset of canonical babbling, that isinfants’ repetition of well-formed syllables such as ba, da and ma, and rhythmic handbanging. A similar association in seen in infants with DS (Cobo-Lewis et al. 1996).Cobo-Lewis et al. suggest that these rhythmic behaviours may be underpinned bycommon neuromuscular systems. In adulthood, there is poor motor performancein those who stutter compared with those with fluent speech (Devenny et al. 1990),and greater speech dysfluency in left- or mixed-handed adults (Devenny andSilverman 1990). However, there is limited information about whether individualvariation in the degree of motor difficulties accounts for variation in languagecompetence throughout childhood. Given evidence for a common genetic basisto motor immaturity and language impairment in SLI (Bishop 2002), furtherexploration of the part played by motor deficits in the language development ofindividuals with DS would be worthwhile.

Association with atypical patterns of cerebral specialization

In most people, it is usual for the left cerebral hemisphere to be specialized forprocessing language. This arrangement is reflected in a right ear advantage for theperception of speech sounds in dichotic listening tasks. In this paradigm, different

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sounds or words are presented to each ear simultaneously, but the listener generallyreports only the stimulus received by the advantaged ear (e.g. Kimura 1967).Lateralization of motor function is also indicated indirectly, by the preference forusing the right hand demonstrated by about 90% of the population. It has beenargued that if the process of lateralization is incomplete, or if functions areorganized differently, the cost could be developmental disabilities such as SLI ordyslexia (e.g. Geschwind and Galaburda 1987, Gauger et al. 1997).

Dichotic listening performance by children with SLI varies across studies, butsome research finds qualitative differences in responses. Children with SLI maymore often show a left ear advantage or weak right ear preference compared withtypical children (e.g. Cohen et al. 1999). Although most children with SLI are righthanded (e.g. Bishop 1990), quantitative assessment suggests this is only a weakpreference (Bishop et al. 1996b, Hill and Bishop 1998, Bishop 2001c). This featurecould reflect atypical morphological asymmetries (e.g. Jernigan et al. 1991, Planteet al. 1991) or could reflect immature neuromotor development rather than a radicaldifference in the brains of these children (Hill and Bishop 1998).

In DS, extensive research has been directed to understanding whether atypicalorganization of motor and language functions limits language development (Chuaet al. 1996). These researchers have developed a model of cerebral organization thatfeatures the separation of speech and motor functions into different cerebralhemispheres. In this model, the centre for motor control is in the left hemisphere,as evidenced by a normal pattern of finger tapping performance favouring the righthand (Elliott 1985, Elliott et al. 1986). However, unlike the general population,children and adults with DS tend to display a left ear advantage in dichotic listeningstudies, indicating right hemisphere processing of language (Elliott et al. 1994).Separation of motor and language functions could reduce the effectiveness ofcommunication between these systems. There is some evidence for this in thatperformance on tasks which require either oral or limb movements is poorer inresponse to verbal instruction than to visual demonstration (Elliott and Weeks1993). Elliott and Weeks found that performance was poorest for participants whohad shown a left ear advantage in dichotic listening tasks.

Summary and implications

The review has addressed the question of whether the language impairment in DScould be the same impairment as that found in otherwise typically developingchildren diagnosed with SLI. The question has been approached in terms of (1) acomparison of language profiles in the two groups and (2) a discussion ofunderlying deficits that could be implicated in the language impairments.Conclusions are summarized in table 3.

In terms of the phenotypes of language disorder, there is considerable evidencefor similarity between the language profiles of individuals with DS and those ofthe majority group of children with SLI. Despite very different backgrounds tolanguage development in terms of general cognitive ability, the main features ofimpairment in both populations are more severe expressive language deficitsrelative to levels of language comprehension, dissociation between grammatical andlexical components of the language system, and difficulties in the acquisition ofmorphology. Research studies which have investigated the effects that variousunderlying deficits might have on language impairment paint similar pictures in

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Table 3. Summary of conclusions

SLI Down’s syndrome

Language in relation togeneral cognitive ability

Poor language relative to cognitive ability is a diagnostic criterion Although vocabulary can be equal to or in advance ofcognitive ability, phonology and grammar are usuallypoorer. Also, language is poor relative to that of peoplewith other learning disabilities

Association with otherproblems

Hearing problems, neurological impairment and psychiatric disorderare ruled out as a cause of language problems

Multiple potential causes, but these do not explain thesubstantial variation in language skill. Further researchis needed to understand the effects of mild-to-moderatehearing loss

Expressive versusreceptive language

Expressive problems w receptive problems. Early expressive abilitiespredict later language outcomes

Expressive problems w receptive problems

Co-morbid speechimpairment

Proportion of children have speech difficulties Speech impairment is often a feature. It is not clear howthis affects language development

Grammatical difficulties Grammar is the most frequently affected component. Difficulties inunderstanding and in producing complex sentences

Possible ceiling on grammatical development. Difficultiesin understanding and in producing complex sentences

Morphology Late acquisition of grammatical morphemes. Research on whetherverb tense marking is a specific deficit gives inconsistent results

Poor use of grammatical morphemes, but may be morenormal for individuals with longer mean lengths ofutterances. Patterns of morpheme use differ fromspecific language impairment, but only two comparativestudies have been reported so far

Vocabulary Proportion of children have word-learning and word-finding difficulties.For others, vocabulary is in line with cognitive abilities

Often, but not always, a strength. Evidence for continuedvocabulary growth into young adulthood

Higher level auditoryprocessing

Some evidence for deficits in processing brief or rapid sounds, andalso conflicting evidence and contrary reports. Further research isnecessary

Little available research

Phonological memorydeficits

Evidence for difficulties in non-word repetition. Poor scores predictlanguage impairment. Less evidence for direct correlation withlanguage measures

Dissociation between phonological memory and visuospatialmemory. Non-word repetition is variable, and variation isrelated to language abilities

Motor development Motor delays related to language impairment Evidence for motor delay. Little research to investigate anassociation with language development

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both populations. This is particularly so with respect to phonological memorydeficits. In terms of the effects of higher level auditory processing deficits, theimpact of motor delay, and the part that atypical cerebral specialization might playin language development, there is less parallel research available from which todraw conclusions about common causes and more direct comparisons would beworthwhile in future research.

The review has been restricted to behavioural data but the implications ofsimilar language phenotypes are that they could be the expression of similargenotypes, and perhaps reflect similar atypical brain development. Althoughresearchers are beginning to uncover some links between genetics and languageimpairment, the chain of events between genes (and the chemical and regulatoryprocesses governed by them) and a phenotype of language impairment remainsmysterious. However, somewhere between genes and expressed phenotypes therelie more proximal explanations for language impairment in the form of atypicalpatterns of brain development or defective underlying capacities or processes whichrestrict language development. If language impairments in DS and SLI are of thesame nature then one might find the same cascades of causes and effects linkinggenes to language phenotypes.

In DS, there is the possibility that the severity of disorders associated with thecondition, including language impairment, could be influenced by variation inspecific genetic factors on chromosome 21. For example, if there is an allele of agene on chromosome 21 that increases the risk of a particular disease, people withDS who have an extra copy of this allele may show unusually high rates of thedisease, whereas those with a different allele do not show such vulnerability. Thiskind of pattern has been observed for heart disease, where genetic variability in agene on chromosome 21 is associated with the congenital heart defects observed inmany individuals with DS (e.g. Davies et al. 1995). A second possibility is thattrisomy 21 produces a genetic background against which risk factors from genes onother chromosomes are more strongly expressed. This pattern has been observed inthe development of Alzheimer’s disease in DS, where the expression of a geneassociated with the disease on chromosome 21 is modified by allelic variation ingenes encoded on chromosome 19 (Corder et al. 1993, Roses and Saunders 1994,Del-Bo et al. 1997, Schupf et al. 1998).

A similar mechanism might be implicated in SLI. Suppose, for instance, thatthere are several alleles that act as quantitative trait loci for language impairment,i.e. they raise the probability that language will be impaired but do not have asimple one-to-one relation with SLI. The likelihood of a child having SLI will be afunction of the number of risk quantitative trait loci present. It is very likely thatenvironmental factors will also play a part, so that SLI is only seen when a high-riskgenotype is exposed to a non-optimal environment (Bishop 2001a). However, thesame alleles may have a much lower threshold for expression when they occur inthe context of trisomy 21 because of the general disruption to developmentalprocesses that the chromosome abnormality entails.

At present, the suggestion of shared genetic factors as background to languageimpairment in the two populations is speculative but is worth considering in futureresearch. Similarly, although consideration of the research on the complexneurobiology of these conditions is beyond the scope of this review, it is worthnoting two features that they have in common. First, there is some evidence of

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minor abnormalities of neuronal migration in DS (Coyle et al. 1986, Wisniewski1990, Golden and Hyman 1994) and in SLI (Galaburda et al. 1985, Clark and Plante1998). Second, there appears to be disproportionate reduction in the size of thecerebellum and frontal lobes in DS (Jernigan et al. 1993, Raz et al. 1995, Murphyet al. 2000, Capone 2001, Pinter et al. 2001). Eckert et al. (2003) have noted similarabnormalities in the brains of dyslexic individuals, and there is suggestive evidencethat the same circuits may be implicated in SLI (Jernigan et al. 1991). Althoughthere are also many points of difference between DS and SLI at this level, futureresearch should identify whether shared atypical features of brain developmentcontribute to language difficulties.

Clinical implications

The main implication for practitioners of a similarity between language profiles inDS and SLI is that it weakens any notion that language impairment in DS shouldbe considered as an inevitable consequence of the learning disability. If languageimpairment is relatively independent of non-verbal ability then, logically, therapeuticgoals should not be determined by the child’s non-verbal intelligence level. In bothDS and SLI, understanding the problems posed by deficits in the processesunderlying language development could provide targets for intervention. If theseconditions do share the same language pathology, it might make sense to transfersuccessful interventions from one condition to the other.

To date, interventions at the level of underlying deficits have focused ondifferent targets in each population. In SLI, intervention has targeted auditoryprocessing deficits, based on the theory (described above) that language deficits canbe attributed to difficulties with processing rapid, successive sounds. The aim ofintervention is to provide intensive training exercises to improve the discriminationand representation of sounds. The most widely offered training programme is FastForWord (Scientific Learning Corporation 1996), and researchers claim remarkablelanguage gains for children with SLI following the training (e.g. Merzenich et al.1996, Tallal et al. 1996). However, there remains the need for considerable researcheffort to determine which children can benefit from auditory training, whichaspects of language can be improved and what the precise mechanism is for anyimprovement (Gillam et al. 2001). If it can be established that higher level auditoryprocessing deficits contribute to language impairment in DS, there is the hope thatauditory training might also benefit these children. However, until one understandsmore about the processes involved, it would be premature to offer such hope.

The main focus of intervention at the level of underlying deficits in DS hasbeen on training short-term memory (e.g. Hulme and Mackenzie 1992, Broadleyand MacDonald 1993, Comblain 1994, Laws et al. 1996, Conners et al. 2001). Therationale for memory training is based on Baddeley’s working memory model(Baddeley 1986, Baddeley and Hitch 1974), which includes a phonological loopcomponent specialized for the short term memory of speech based material. Arange of clinical and experimental evidence points to the dissociation of processeswithin the phonological loop so that deficits can be associated either with thestorage of phonological material or with the maintenance of inputs by articulatoryrehearsal. Individuals with DS may not develop spontaneous rehearsal strategies(Hulme and Mackenzie 1992) and so have difficulty in maintaining inputs (e.g. new

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vocabulary items), with adverse consequences for language development. The aimof memory training studies has been to teach a cumulative rehearsal strategy.Despite the short term success of programmes in increasing memory span (e.g.Broadley and MacDonald 1993), skills have not been maintained over the longerterm (Laws et al. 1995) and the impact of increasing memory span on languagedevelopment is unknown. Despite evidence for phonological memory problems inSLI, there appear to be no comparable studies. However, Montgomery (2002), in arecent review of the evidence for the role of phonological memory in the languagedifficulties of children with SLI, has suggested teaching cumulative rehearsalalongside a range of games aimed at increasing metaphonological awareness.Comparing the effects of training interventions based on auditory processing ormemory training in both populations could further understanding of the complexrelationships between these deficits and general language skills, as well as potentiallybenefiting affected children.

Acknowledgement

Research was funded by a grant from The Wellcome Trust to D. V. M. B.

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