title: Communication ability in persons with trisomy 18 and trisomy 13.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to assess communication abilities among a sample of 10 individuals with Trisomy 18 and Trisomy 13. These 10 individuals were diagnosed with Trisomy 18 (n = 8) or Trisomy 13 (n = 2) and had a mean age of 15.96 years. The sample consisted of one male and nine females. Caregivers completed a case history and reported on words and gestures understood and/or produced. Participants were also videotaped during communication temptation tasks. Auditory comprehension was reported to be higher than expressive language. No participant produced intelligible words or word approximations, yet most produced hand gestures. The process and results of these 10 cases point to a potentially promising approach for assessing communication abilities in individuals with Trisomy 18 and Trisomy 13.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Saint Louis University, USA. bbraddoc@slu.edu
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Braddock
authors.forename: Jena
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McDaniel
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Spragge
authors.forename: Filip
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Loncke
authors.forename: Stephen R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Braddock
authors.forename: John C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Carey
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001519:Behavior / Q000145:classification*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002882:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 13; D002887:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 18; D003142:Communication; D032882:Comprehension; D005260:Female; D005868:Gestures; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014314:Trisomy; D014743:Videotape Recording