Abstract
Background and rationale. Down syndrome (DS) is the most frequent genetic cause of intellectual disability in children and adults. Deficits in language comprehension and production, expressive language, verbal memory and cognitive flexibility (CF) are commonly described in individuals with DS. Nonetheless, their receptive vocabulary (RV) shows better development. Adolescents and adults with DS have deficits on CF which have an impact over linguistic skills. Research suggests a significant relationship between CF and RV in DS (Campbell et al. Am J Intellect Dev Disabil 118(3):193–200, 2013; Landry et al. J Dev Disabil 18(2):24–33, 2012). However, little is known regarding the factors involved in such relationship. The aim of this research, is to analyze such relationship.
Results and Discussion. A significant relationship between CF and RV has been reported, but little is known regarding the factors involved in such relationship. The aim of this chapter is to review recent studies regarding both CF and RV in people with DS. We will also explore the variables that, according to previous studies, enable us to understand CF development and RV in people with DS.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by PAPIIT RN309214 Desarrollo del Lenguaje en Niños con Síndrome de Down: La Comprensión Temprana, and the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation, Language Comprehension in Down Syndrome (awarded to NA-T).
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García, O., Castillo-Ignacio, B., Arias-Trejo, N. (2017). Vocabulary and Cognitive Flexibility in People with Down Syndrome. In: Auza Benavides, A., Schwartz, R. (eds) Language Development and Disorders in Spanish-speaking Children. Literacy Studies, vol 14. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53646-0_17
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