Reviews for Medical Care in Down Syndrome: A Preventive Medicine Approach

The average rating for Medical Care in Down Syndrome: A Preventive Medicine Approach based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-11-26 00:00:00 Kimberly Menard As a linguist I found this a nice introduction to the puzzles of language origin and evolution. I have next to no background in genetics, evolutionary biology, brain structure, but I learned a lot by reading this. I would recommend this book to those interested in the question of "when did language start", but a basic background in one of linguistics or biology is necessary. I'm considering assigning Chapter 5 "Language in the Brain" to my intro linguistics class to have them read about where language is located in the brain. I'd recommend reading Chapters 9-11 if you want a discussion of the key, general-interest questions like: "where in time did language probably appear" and "what were the preconditions and selective pressures leading to language?" The typesetting is adorable. This is a truly "co"-authored book; the whole book is written like a dialogue where the authors are writing chapters to each other, using different fonts to distinguish their voices. I also thought the treatment of endnotes in the book was interesting: in the main text, there are no superscripts at all indicating an endnote is to be found. Instead, there are simply endnotes with references to the page number of the main text. I usually find endnote superscripts distracting and rarely flip to them, but the few times I was reading and wanted elaboration or a citation, I flipped to the back and did find a note. Probably not the best format for a research-intensive book but for this kind of book it worked, and worked well. I had trouble following William Calvin's chapters - the neurophysiologist. In fact, I think I missed the book's core points about the special organization of neurons in the brain. But I blame that on my inadequate background. I think a non-linguist would find the linguist Derek Bickerton's chapters difficult too. It's a challenging but rewarding book! I think there's some room for improvement here - although a helpful Glossary is provided for some terms, not nearly enough diagrams of the brain are provided to follow the discussion. There is also an interesting reconceptualization of Minimalist Syntax in the appendix, which basis Binding, Reference Resolution, etc on "order of attachment" rather than linear precedence / c-command. An interesting theory, but I've never seen it used in the literature.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-11-26 00:00:00 Mary Schuette I reviewed this one too in the Journal of Human Evolution.