This study was conducted to assess the degree to which verbal prosody may differentially influence verbal processing in DS relative to age and mental-age matched controls. Nine individuals with DS, 7 mental-age matched (DD), and 10 chronological age matched controls (CG) participated in a dichotic free recall paradigm in which words were presented in either a happy, sad or neutral intonation. Results suggest that for all groups the cerebral hemispheres are indeed differentially affected by the presence of prosody in speech. In addition, the atypical RH hemispheric advantage for auditory processing in DS (e.g., Elliott, Weeks & Elliott, 1987) is mediated when verbal stimuli are delivered with prosody.