A Development of Language assisted by Onomatopoeia of the children with down's Syndrome

1991 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 01510071
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Psychology
• Research Institution: University of The Ryukyus
• Principal Investigator: KAMIZONO Sachiro University of The Ryukyus Department of Education Associate Professor, 教育学部, 助教授 (70149334)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): TAKARABE Morihisa University of The Ryukyus Department of education Associate Professor, 教育学部, 助教授 (50175436)
• Project Period (FY): 1989 – 1991
• Keywords: Down's syndrome / speech therapy / communication / onomatopoeia / language development

Research Abstract

Kamizono(1988)found that the children with Down's syndrome increased communication ability by using onomatopoeia. Then, we analyzed the onomatopoeia of the children with Down's syndrome in free play situation to investigate the reason and cognitive background of effective usage of onomatopoeia in their communication. The results are follows.
1. Phonological aspects : 1)the children with Down's syndrome can articulate onomatopoeia easily. because onomatopoeia's sounds are similar to bubbling sounds. 2)Onomatopoeia can be easily retained in memory and vocal imitation of onomatopoeia can be performed easily. because the phonological structure of onomatopoeia are the duplir-ated phonemes and redundant.
2. Semantic aspects : 1)There is a contractive relationship between the sounds and meaning in onomatopoeia. therefore. one can directively access the meaning of the sound. Even the children with Down's syndrome who have week abstract ability can easily comprehend the meaning of onomatopoeia. 2 )The children with Down's syndrome can spread out a world of the meaning by their own vocal sound, because of the characteristics of onomatopoeia above mentioned(1).
3. Pragmatic aspects : 1)Most onomatopoeias by the children with Down's syndrome are what is called "psudo-communication". which means to be never carried out the give-and-take of intentions. According to this result. the children with Down's syndrome may use onomatopoeia to keep the relation to other people. 2)Intimate persons(ex. mother. teacher in charge. etc.)comprehended the referent of the vocal sounds uttered by the children with Down's syndrome. but other people can not comprehend the referent. This result may suggest that communication in children with Down's syndrome changes due to human relation. 3)Onomatopoeia in communication situation has a situation-bounded characteristic. Therefore, the children with Down' syndrome improve the communication skill. by taking advantage of the constraint of meanings and the characteristics. of communication situation. We are investigating the program of speech therapy with the help of onomatopoeia based on the above findings.