A STUDY OF PHONOLOGICAL DEFICITS IN CHILDREN WITH DOWN SYNDROME

Abstract

The aim of the study was to explore the phonological disabilities in children with down syndrome. It is about the syndrome influence on the phonological patterns with epi linguistic and meta linguistic transitions with large and small segments of sound structure. The potential negative effects and difficulties on learning reading of Urdu language vowels and consonant were observed. This study was qualitative in nature. The non-probability purposive sampling was used. There were two groups of population i.e. normal children and down syndrome children. The instruments included in this study were demographic information sheet, word elicitation list and reading comprehension notes. The written consent was taken from the participants for data collection. This study used CV phonology by Clements and Keyser (1983) as the theoretical framework. The findings show the substitution of consonants, vowels and consonant clusters by down syndrome children. The substitution process had been used with correct vowels and consonants in Urdu language. Further, this study also pointed out the position of phonemes on onset, nucleus and coda positions. It concluded that phonology of children with down syndrome was different from the normal children. The findings of the study may have implementation in clinical and educational fields.