Speech and related physiological stigmata in the Down's Syndrome retardate

Down's Syndrome is one of the most frequent forms of mental retardation. Mclntire and Dutch. (1964) have reported that it occurs about once in six hundred births and accounts for approximately ten percent of all institutionalized mentally retarded patients. Much has been written on the mentally retarded child in relation to language development. Little, however, has been written on the patterns and development of speech in the mentally retarded child—more specifically, the child with Down's Syndrome. Many of the speech anomalies are blamed on the retardation itself, as summed up by the statement Zisk (1967) quoted, "Mongolism causes defective speech," and thus forgotten. However, there is a theory, somewhat controversial in nature, that there may be differences in speech among various etiological groups of mental retardates. There has been relatively little advancement toward understanding the genesis of speech problems among Down's Syndrome retardates. Blanchard (1964), after comparing subjects in various etiological categories, concluded that intellectual deficiency, per se, had a less debilitating effect on the understandability of speech than did the condition of Down's Syndrome. This view was expounded upon by Zisk (1967) when she questioned why children with Down's Syndrome evidenced more articulatory difficulties than did normal individuals, and why, if the results of previous studies were to be accepted, did children with Down's Syndrome evidence more articulation problems than other retardates. Zisk (1967) stated: It is entirely possible that answers to the foregoing questions may be suggested by close consideration of the mongoloid individuals' oral structure and associated anatomy. There has not yet been any research aimed at isolating specific mongoloid stigmata which may give rise to specific articulatory problems. In the field of articulatory development, then, the area of Down's Syndrome mental retardation and its effect on the development of sounds has been explored very little. The present study examines the notion that retardates with Down's Syndrome have a specific articulatory defect pattern and that this pattern, different from that of other retardates of comparable intelligence, is directly affected by their stigmata—formed structural limitations.