scholarly journals Peer-Related Social Competence of Young Children With Down Syndrome

Author(s):  
Michael J Guralnick ◽  
Robert T Connor ◽  
L. Clark Johnson

Abstract The peer-related social competence of children with Down syndrome was examined in an observational study. Dyadic interactions with peers of children with Down syndrome were compared with the dyadic interactions of matched groups of typically developing children and with playmates differing in both familiarity and social skills. Results suggested that both risk and protective factors influenced the peer interactions of children with Down syndrome. Recommendations are made for applying contemporary models of peer-related social competence to etiologic subgroups to better understand the mechanisms involved and to provide direction for the design of intervention programs.

Author(s):  
Michael J. Guralnick ◽  
Robert T. Connor ◽  
L. Clark Johnson

Abstract Numerous dimensions of the peer social networks of children with Down syndrome were examined within a developmental framework. Results revealed that for many key measures, particularly involvement in play, linkages to other settings, and control of play, children with Down syndrome have less well-developed peer networks even in comparison to a mental age matched group of typically developing children. This suggests both an absence of any social advantage in the peer context for children with Down syndrome and the existence of unusual difficulties that may be traced to underlying problems in peer-related social competence. The need for future observational studies of peer interactions for this group of children was emphasized.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 704
Author(s):  
Kari-Anne B. Næss ◽  
Egil Nygaard ◽  
Hilde Hofslundsengen ◽  
J. Scott Yaruss

The present study (a) addressed difficulties in speech fluency in children with Down syndrome and typically developing children at a similar non-verbal level and (b) examined the association between difficulties with speech fluency and language skills in children with Down syndrome. Data from a cross-sectional parent survey that included questions about children’s difficulties with speech fluency, as well as clinical tests from a national age cohort of 43 six-year-olds with Down syndrome and 57 young typically developing children, were collected. Fisher’s exact test, Student’s t-test, linear regression, and density ellipse scatter plots were used for analysis. There was a significantly higher occurrence of parent-reported difficulties with speech fluency in the children with Down syndrome. Higher language scores were significantly associated with a lower degree of difficulties; this association was strongest for vocabulary and phonological skills. Although difficulties with speech fluency were not reported for all children with Down syndrome, a substantially higher occurrence of such difficulties was reported compared to that for typically developing children. The significant association between difficulties with speech fluency and the level of language functioning suggests that speech fluency and language skills should be taken into consideration when planning treatment for children with Down syndrome.


SAGE Open ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 215824401668779 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianna Alesi

Family is a crucial factor to determine the amount, the duration, and the complexity of children’s sport activities. This study aims at comparing the beliefs concerning the involvement in sport activities among parents of children with Down syndrome (DS) and parents of typically developing children (TDC). A phenomenological theoretical framework was adopted to realize semistructured interviews with the parents. The participants were 35 parents: 19 with children and adolescents with DS and 16 with TDC. The main facilitation/barrier themes identified by the parents of children with DS were the family and the expert at Adapted Physical Activity (APA) instructors. Conversely, the parents of TDC identified social factors related to family as the only barrier. One of the issues that emerge from this study is the lack of home-based physical activity (PA) intervention programs aimed at involving families and children.


Gesture ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 299-334
Author(s):  
Arianna Bello ◽  
Silvia Stefanini ◽  
Pasquale Rinaldi ◽  
Daniela Onofrio ◽  
Virginia Volterra

Abstract In early communicative development, children with Down syndrome (DS) make extensive use of gestures to compensate for articulatory difficulties. Here, we analyzed the symbolic strategies that underlie this gesture production, compared to that used by typically developing children. Using the same picture-naming task, 79 representational gestures produced by 10 children with DS and 42 representational gestures produced by 10 typically developing children of comparable developmental age (3;1 vs. 2;9, respectively) were collected. The gestures were analyzed and classified according to four symbolic strategies. The two groups performed all of the strategies, with no significant differences for either choice or frequency of the strategies used. The item analysis highlighted that some photographs tended to elicit the use of the same strategy in both groups. These results indicate that similar symbolic strategies are active in children with DS as in typically developing children, which suggests interesting similarities in their symbolic development.


Author(s):  
Linda Gilmore ◽  
Monica Cuskelly

Abstract Despite a lack of consistent empirical evidence, there has been an ongoing assumption that intellectual disability is associated with reduced levels of motivation. The participants in this study were 33 children with Down syndrome ages 10–15 years and 33 typically developing 3–8-year-old children. Motivation was measured through observational assessments of curiosity, preference for challenge, and persistence, as well as maternal reports. There were no significant group differences on motivation tasks, but mothers of children with Down syndrome rated their children significantly lower on motivation than did parents of typically developing children. There were some intriguing group differences in the pattern of correlations among observations and parent reports. The findings challenge long-held views that individuals with intellectual disability are invariably deficient in motivation.


1998 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary A. Roach ◽  
Marguerite Stevenson Barratt ◽  
Jon F. Miller ◽  
Lewis A. Leavitt

2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 221-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
SILVANA E. MENGONI ◽  
HANNAH NASH ◽  
CHARLES HULME

ABSTRACTChildren with Down syndrome typically have weaknesses in oral language, but it has been suggested that this domain may benefit from learning to read. Amongst oral language skills, vocabulary is a relative strength, although there is some evidence of difficulties in learning the phonological form of spoken words. This study investigated the effect of orthographic support on spoken word learning with seventeen children with Down syndrome aged seven to sixteen years and twenty-seven typically developing children aged five to seven years matched for reading ability. Ten spoken nonwords were paired with novel pictures; for half the nonwords the written form was also present. The spoken word learning of both groups did not differ and benefited to the same extent from the presence of the written word. This suggests that compared to reading-matched typically developing children, children with Down syndrome are not specifically impaired in phonological learning and benefit equally from orthographic support.


2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 328-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chandni Parikh ◽  
Ann M Mastergeorge

Children with Down syndrome (DS) are at higher risk for both delayed expressive language and poor speech intelligibility. The current study utilized the quantitative automated language environment analysis (LENA) to depict mother and child vocalizations and conversational patterns in the home of 43 children with DS, chronologically aged 24–64 months. Children with DS displayed fewer utterances than typically developing children; however, there was wide variability. Furthermore, children with DS did not show increased vocalization counts across their chronological ages. In contrast to previous findings, this study found that the mothers of children with DS had a reduced number of vocalizations. However, the vocalizations increased with age in comparison to mothers of typically developing children. Implications for targeted interventions that facilitate learning opportunities in bidirectional contexts for children with DS and their parents are discussed, with particular attention to quantify behavioral phenotypes utilizing a novel expressive language assessment tool.


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