Study: expand language learning for Down's children. (Curriculum update: the latest developments in math, science, language arts and social studies).

Does language learning end during the teen years for children with Down's syndrome? Studies in the past 10 years have claimed it does. As a result, educator expectations of these students' grammar, speaking and reading abilities may be lower.

Time to reconsider, suggests a new, larger study conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Waisman Center, which researches developmental disabilities. For the past six years, comprehension tests and storytelling tasks of 31 young people with Down's syndrome (5-20 at the study's start) measured abilities to understand and speak complex grammar.

The study found that language comprehension skills quickly develop during childhood, but that development slows down as the child reaches the teen years. Language expression skills, meanwhile, continue to improve throughout adolescence. However, the continued development of language expression depends on at least maintaining comprehension skills.

"There should continue to be language work in both comprehension and expression throughout teenage and young adult years," says Robin Chapman, a professor emeritus of communicative disorders and primary investigator for the study. The study's results were published in the October 2002 issue of the Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research.

She hopes the findings will encourage educators to extend expectations of students' complex language skills, such as reading, and to continue to see children as eligible for speech and language services throughout their school years. Skill expectations should also be integrated into practice in vocational programs, where districts often shift teens with cognitive disabilities, she adds.

"Kids with Down's syndrome can accomplish a lot. Think of Chris Burke [from the television show Life Goes On]," Chapman says. We need to maximize the opportunities so they can accomplish even more."

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