Análise da estruturação frasal e do discurso narrativo de jovens e adultos com síndrome de Down da associação Down de Goiás.

Abstract

Down Syndrome (DS) is a chromosomal alteration caused by trisomy of chromosome 21, whose characteristics do not progress over time. This genetic condition is not classified by degrees, and the overall development of individuals with DS tends to be later than expected. The genetic mutation of chromosome 21 primarily affects language production. Difficulties can be observed in all language components: phonological, semantic, pragmatic, and morphosyntactic. Morphology and syntax are linguistic skills that are typically underdeveloped in DS when compared to cognitive and language comprehension abilities. It is uncommon to find literature data on the syntactic development of adolescents and young adults with DS. Among the few records in the literature on this topic in adulthood, short statements formulated in the present indicative, grammatical inflections, simple sentences, a decrease in the number of nouns, an increase in the use of verbs, syntactic complexity, and improved narrative discourse are observed. Objective: To investigate the sentence and discourse structure of young adults with Down Syndrome from the Down Syndrome Association of Goiás. Method: This is a qualitative cross-sectional field study with young adults with Down Syndrome, participants in the Lablin project (Language Laboratory) at the Down Syndrome Association of Goiás (ASDOWN) located in Goiânia, GO. Fifteen young adults with Down Syndrome participated in the study, 6 males and 9 females, aged between 16 and 54. Conclusion: The results confirm that the majority of participants presented short statements, simple sentence structure, errors in gender inflection, the use of connectors, verbs, prepositions, and nominal agreement. Additionally, difficulties in establishing causal links, coherence, and narrative cohesion were observed. Participants also demonstrated problems in contextualizing the story. In this research, the younger participants (16 years old) and those aged 30 to 39 exhibited greater total statement length. Keywords: Down Syndrome, syntactic aspect, young adults, Trisomy 21, Speech Therapy.