Abstract

In order to verify the typicality of language acquisition process in children with Down syndrome, this study aims at comparing spontaneous pre-verbal and gestural productions of 10 24-month-old children with Down syndrome, with the productions of a group of 10 late talkers (i.e. 24-month-old children with fewer than 50 words). In this way we could compare language development in these different populations, considering both the same chronological age (24 months) and the similar vocabulary size (less than 50 words). From the analyses carried out on the resulting data, it emerges how in the first stages of language acquisition there are no significant differences between these two groups.