Maternal Responsiveness to Gestures in Children With Down Syndrome

Abstract

Young children with DS gesture more than chronological age-matched children with TD, therefore providing numerous opportunities for caregivers to recode child gestures and support language development. Early intervention should focus on increasing parent responsiveness to child gestures earlier in life in order to provide additional word-learning opportunities for children with DS.

Characterizing the Richness of Maternal Input for Word Learning in Neurogenetic Disorders

“…For populations with gesture strengths, such as DS, 17,81,89 more instances of word-referent transparency may be driven by the child as illustrated by two of our three case examples. For children with weakness in gesture, such as those with FXS, [18][19][20]90 it may be even more difficult for mothers of children with FXS to provide follow-in comments because their children are not using gestures frequently.…”

“…Research suggests that mothers recode the gestures used by children with DS, providing linguistic input related to their children's nonverbal communication. 81 For example, the child points to a picture of a dog and their mother responds, "That's a dog." Interestingly, mothers of children with DS and with typical development recode a similar amount of gestures.…”

“…Interestingly, mothers of children with DS and with typical development recode a similar amount of gestures. 69,81 However, there is a developmental shift with mothers of typically developing children reducing their use of gesture recodes as children age, whereas mothers of children with DS continue to recode child gestures as they age. 81 Therefore, mothers of children with DS may be more likely to interpret potentially communicative behaviors and respond to the child with the words for their communication than mothers of typically developing agematched 82 and expressive language-matched peers.…”

“…69,81 However, there is a developmental shift with mothers of typically developing children reducing their use of gesture recodes as children age, whereas mothers of children with DS continue to recode child gestures as they age. 81 Therefore, mothers of children with DS may be more likely to interpret potentially communicative behaviors and respond to the child with the words for their communication than mothers of typically developing agematched 82 and expressive language-matched peers. 77 If there is a tendency of mothers to respond to potentially communicative behaviors, this provides an avenue for early interventions that teach parents to be responsive to their child's communicative acts and, in turn, improve their language outcomes.…”

An investigation into maternal use of telegraphic input to children with Down syndrome

“…It is possible that mothers take into account child gesture and sign language use when providing linguistic input. Studies have demonstrated that mothers of children with DS are able to acknowledge and respond to child signs and gestures (Dimitrova et al, 2016;Lorang, Sterling, & Schroeder, 2018). It may be the case that mothers adjust their language based on their child's gestures or total communication attempts (i.e., the combination of gestures, vocalizations, and verbalizations rather than just verbalizations) when communicating with young children with DS, particularly given that gestures are often the primary means of communication for an extended period of time in children with DS.…”