A survey of expressive communication skills in children with Angelman syndrome

Angelman syndrome (AS) results from partial deletion of the 15th chromosome (Knoll et al., 1989) and occurs in approximately 1 per 10,000 live births (Petersen, Brondum-Nielsen, Hansen, & Wulff, 1995). Individuals with AS exhibit a pattern of developmental delays that include feeding problems in infancy, delays in motor development, ataxic movements, seizures, severe to profound mental retardation, and a lack of expressive speech (Williams, Zori, et at., 1995). The purposes of this article are to summarize clinical research on AS, to provide a description of the communication skills of individuals with AS, and to identify strategies and resources for communication intervention. It begins by reviewing the existing literature on the clinical characteristics of individuals with AS, with an emphasis on communication skills. The second part of the article presents results obtained from a survey of 20 families of children with AS on the children's expressive communication skills. The implications of the findings of the survey are discussed relative to the existing literature.