Exploring the predictive role of lexical stress discrimination in the phonological and gramatical skills of teenagers with Down syndrome

The study aimed to assess whether lexical stress discrimination contributes to accounting for the phonological and grammatical skills of teenagers with Down síndrome (DS). Lexical stress discrimination, along with a range of phonological and grammatical skills, was assessed in a group of 27 teenagers with DS.

The differential predictive role of lexical stress discrimination in phonology and grammar was studied, taking into account the potential effect of other relevant variables, namely, hearing thresholds, verbal short-term memory, chronological age and non-verbal cognition. Only for the grammar measurements did lexical stress discrimination play a predictive role. Regression models revealed that, for grammatical integration and sentence repetition, both verbal short-term memory and lexical stress discrimination emerged as significant predictors.