Is the Age of Developmental Milestones a Predictor for Future Development in Down Syndrome?

Down Syndrome (DS) is the most common genetic alteration responsible for intellectual disability, which refers to deficits in both intellectual and adaptive functioning. According to this, individuals with Down Syndrome (DS) reach developmental milestones (e.g., sitting, walking, and babbling) in the same order as their typically developing peers, but later in life. Since developmental milestones are the first blocks on which development builds, the aims of the current study are to: (i) expand the knowledge of developmental milestone acquisition; and (ii) explore the relationship between developmental milestone acquisition and later development. For this purpose 105 children/adolescents with DS were involved in this study, divided in two groups, Preschoolers (n = 39) and School-age participants (n = 66). Information on the age of acquisition of Sitting, Walking, Babbling, and Sphincter Control was collected, together with cognitive, motor, and adaptive functioning. Sitting predicted later motor development, but, with age, it became less important in predicting motor development in everyday life. Babbling predicted later language development in older children. Finally, Sphincter Control emerged as the strongest predictor of motor, cognitive, language, and adaptive skills, with its role being more evident with increasing age. Our data suggest that the age of reaching the milestones considered in the study has an influence on successive development, a role that can be due to common neural substrates, the environment, and the developmental cascade effect.

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Motor Development in Children with Down Syndrome: A Review of the Literature

Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly ◽

10.1123/apaq.8.3.179 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 179-209 ◽

Cited By ~ 58

Author(s):

Martin E. Block

Keyword(s):

Down Syndrome ◽

Motor Development ◽

Future Research ◽

Medical Conditions ◽

Review Of The Literature ◽

Children With Down Syndrome ◽

Extant Literature ◽

Sensory Deficits ◽

The Past ◽

The Relationship

The effects of Down syndrome (DS) on motor development have been widely reported over the years, particularly with the profusion of research in the past 10 years. Although more research is needed to fully understand the relationship between DS and motor development, there is a need to synthesize the current findings. Henderson (1985, 1986) and Reid (1985) reviewed the literature regarding the motor development of children with DS. While Henderson’s review was extremely well done, certain recent studies can add to our understanding of the motor characteristics of these children. Furthermore, Henderson did not examine factors such as cardiac, anatomical, and sensory deficits that can affect motor development. Therefore this paper reviews the extant literature regarding the motor development of children with DS in terms of health and medical conditions that can affect this development as well as the motor development of infants and all others with DS. Finally, implications for future research and programming are discussed.

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Developmental milestones in early childhood and genetic liability to neurodevelopmental disorders

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291721003330 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-9

Author(s):

Laurie J. Hannigan ◽

Ragna Bugge Askeland ◽

Helga Ask ◽

Martin Tesli ◽

Elizabeth Corfield ◽

...

Keyword(s):

General Population ◽

Motor Development ◽

Neurodevelopmental Disorders ◽

Early Life ◽

Probit Regression ◽

Developmental Milestones ◽

Genetic Liability ◽

Developmental Milestone ◽

Polygenic Scores ◽

Children First

Abstract Background Timing of developmental milestones, such as age at first walking, is associated with later diagnoses of neurodevelopmental disorders. However, its relationship to genetic risk for neurodevelopmental disorders in the general population is unknown. Here, we investigate associations between attainment of early-life language and motor development milestones and genetic liability to autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and schizophrenia. Methods We use data from a genotyped sub-set (N = 25699) of children in the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). We calculate polygenic scores (PGS) for autism, ADHD, and schizophrenia and predict maternal reports of children's age at first walking, first words, and first sentences, motor delays (18 months), and language delays and a generalised measure of concerns about development (3 years). We use linear and probit regression models in a multi-group framework to test for sex differences. Results We found that ADHD PGS were associated with earlier walking age (β = −0.033, padj < 0.001) in both males and females. Additionally, autism PGS were associated with later walking (β = 0.039, padj = 0.006) in females only. No robust associations were observed for schizophrenia PGS or between any neurodevelopmental PGS and measures of language developmental milestone attainment. Conclusions Genetic liabilities for neurodevelopmental disorders show some specific associations with the age at which children first walk unsupported. Associations are small but robust and, in the case of autism PGS, differentiated by sex. These findings suggest that early-life motor developmental milestone attainment is associated with genetic liability to ADHD and autism in the general population.

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Mental State Verb Production as a Measure of Perspective Taking in Narrations of Individuals With Down Syndrome

Frontiers in Communication ◽

10.3389/fcomm.2021.629757 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

Author(s):

Isabel Neitzel ◽

Martina Penke

Keyword(s):

Down Syndrome ◽

Mental State ◽

Perspective Taking ◽

Syntactic Analysis ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Expressive Vocabulary ◽

Complex Sentence ◽

Frequent Use ◽

Language Measures ◽

The Relationship

Introduction: Perspective taking is an important ability to enrich narrations by empathizing with a real or fictional character. Mental state verbs (MSV) are a good indicator for this ability as they serve to reflect the mindset that the narrator attributes to a protagonist. Especially syntactic abilities have been argued to be relevant for MSV use. Investigating persons with Down Syndrome (DS) is likely to provide important insights into the relationship of MSV use and syntactic abilities: MSV are mostly used in complex sentence structures, which are a frequent difficulty for individuals with this syndrome. Indeed, previous investigations have found first evidence for impaired MSV production in individuals with DS, indicating a link to syntactic abilities and expressive vocabulary. Our aim was to provide evidence on MSV production and on the syntactic context of MSV production in individuals with DS and to target a possible connection to both cognitive and language abilities using specific language assessments. Typically-developing (pre-)school children were included as a comparison group to identify impaired respectively developmentally-adequate performance.Method: 28 individuals with Down syndrome (aged 10; 0–20; 1 years) participated in a battery of cognitive, narrative and language measures. MSV-performance and syntactical context of MSV use were compared to data from 33 typically-developing children aged 3–9 years. We also analyzed the relationship between MSV production and language performance (vocabulary, syntax measures, mean length of utterance).Results: The total number and types of MSV used were comparable for individuals with DS and TD. Moreover, a syntactic analysis indicated that individuals with DS and TD use MSV in the same syntactic contexts. Nevertheless, the syntactic difficulties of participants with DS are reflected in their frequent use of MSV in sentence-fragments. Correlations over the DS group yielded that syntactic abilities were not decisive for the richness and diversity of MSV in narrations.Conclusion: Our findings suggest a comparable performance in MSV use in individuals with DS and school-aged TD children. The data indicate that MSV production is possible even with an impaired syntax suggesting unimpaired perspective taking abilities in individuals with DS.

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Child Sleep Linked to Child and Family Functioning in Children with Down Syndrome

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci11091170 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (9) ◽

pp. 1170

Author(s):

Anna J. Esbensen ◽

Emily K. Schworer ◽

Emily K. Hoffman ◽

Susan Wiley

Keyword(s):

Down Syndrome ◽

Family Functioning ◽

Sleep Duration ◽

Adaptive Functioning ◽

Sleep Problems ◽

Family Stress ◽

Children With Down Syndrome ◽

Child Sleep ◽

Children’S Sleep ◽

The Relationship

Sleep problems have a bi-directional impact on the daytime performance of children, parental well-being, and overall family functioning in the general population. Children with Down syndrome (DS) are at a high risk of sleep problems, yet the relationship between sleep problems, adaptive functioning, and family stress in children with DS is not well documented. We examined the relationship between sleep (i.e., duration and quality) and child and parent/family functioning. Sixty-six children with DS wore an actigraph for a week to assess their sleep duration and sleep efficiency. Their parents completed ratings on child sleep duration and parasomnias, child adaptive functioning, parental depression and sleep, and family stress. The parents’ reports of their children’s sleep duration were associated with parental depressive symptoms. The parents’ reports of their children’s restless sleep behaviors were associated with poorer performances in child-compliant/calm behaviors, worse parental sleep, and negative parental feelings and sibling relationships. The findings from actigraph measures of the children’s sleep demonstrated that greater sleep efficiency was associated with greater child adaptive functioning and fewer parental depressive symptoms. The study findings provide preliminary evidence that sleep problems are related to child adaptive functioning, parental functioning, and family stress in children with DS.

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The Relationship Between Sound–Shape Matching and Cognitive Ability in Adults With Down Syndrome

Multisensory Research ◽

10.1163/22134808-00002579 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 30 (6) ◽

pp. 537-547 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

S. Hamburg ◽

C. M. Startin ◽

A. Strydom

Keyword(s):

Down Syndrome ◽

Cognitive Ability ◽

Adaptive Behavior ◽

Shape Matching ◽

Preliminary Finding ◽

General Characteristic ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Behavior Skills ◽

The Relationship ◽

Adaptive Behavior Skills

Down syndrome (DS), the most common genetic cause of intellectual disability, is characterised by a pattern of cognitive deficits hypothesised as relating to later developing neural systems. Multisensory integration (MSI) has been shown to benefit cognitive performance on numerous tasks in the typically developing population and is implicated in the early development of various cognitive processes. Given these developmental links of both MSI and DS it is important to determine the relationship between MSI and DS. This study aimed to characterise sound–shape matching performance in young adults with DS as an indicator of MSI (correct response rate around 90% in typically developing individuals). We further investigated the relationship between task performance and estimated cognitive ability (verbal and non-verbal) in addition to everyday adaptive behavior skills. Those answering correctly (72.5%) scored significantly higher across cognitive and adaptive behavior measures compared to those answering incorrectly. Furthermore, 57.1% of individuals with estimated cognitive ability scores below the median value answered correctly compared to 89.5% of individuals scoring above the median, with similar values found for adaptive behavior skills (57.9% vs. 94.4%). This preliminary finding suggests sound–shape matching deficits are relatively common in DS but may be restricted to individuals of lower ability as opposed to being a general characteristic of DS. Further studies investigating aspects of MSI across a range of modalities are necessary to fully characterise the nature of MSI in DS and to explore underlying neural correlates and mechanisms.

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The applied ability in infant crawling and the importance of prone motor experience for subsequent development

10.21203/rs.3.rs-393194/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Shimpei Yamamoto ◽

Yeonghee Lee ◽

Umi Matsumura ◽

Toshiya Tsurusaki

Keyword(s):

Motor Learning ◽

Prone Position ◽

Motor Development ◽

Subsequent Development ◽

The Other ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Trial And Error ◽

Significant Difference ◽

The Difference ◽

The Relationship

Abstract Background: In the process of motor learning in human, many movement patterns, that is, many variations, are tried first, and more efficient movements come to be selected based on experience of trial and error. Although this process for selection (i.e., variability) is particularly active in infancy neurodevelopment and motor development, few studies have explored the variation / variability of infant crawling.Aims: The first is to investigate the difference in the variability of hands-knees crawling between typically developing infants with and without belly crawling experience. The second is to examine the relationship between development after 2 years of age and crawling variability.Study design: This study was longitudinal. Crawling variability was evaluated by encoding crawling variation in infants not pointed out neurological or orthopedic problems. We investigated the differences in the quantity and content of hands-knees crawling variation between infants with and without belly crawling experience. Further, we retrospectively explored the difference in the whole quantity of crawling variation during both belly and hands-knees crawling stages between two groups, suspicious and normal in DENVER Ⅱ conducted after 2 years of age.Results: The quantity of hands-knees crawling variation was significantly smaller in the group with belly crawling experience than the group without the experience. On the other hand, the content of hands-knees crawling variation was almost the same between these two groups. In addition, there was a significant difference in the whole quantity of crawling variation between the suspicious and the normal group.Conclusions: The current study shows that infants improve the learning efficiency and variability of hands-knees crawling movements by applying skills acquired through belly crawling experience, which provides one interpretation of the importance of sensorimotor experience in the prone position in infancy. Furthermore, this study suggests a link between crawling variability and subsequent development.

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Performance Variability During Motor Learning of a New Balance Task in a Non-immersive Virtual Environment in Children With Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy and Typically Developing Peers

Frontiers in Neurology ◽

10.3389/fneur.2021.623200 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Minxin Cheng ◽

Michael Anderson ◽

Danielle E. Levac

Keyword(s):

Cerebral Palsy ◽

Motor Learning ◽

Skill Acquisition ◽

Motor Skill ◽

Small Sample ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Older Children ◽

Performance Variability ◽

Z Scores ◽

The Relationship

Background: Motor impairments contribute to performance variability in children with cerebral palsy (CP) during motor skill learning. Non-immersive virtual environments (VEs) are popular interventions to promote motor learning in children with hemiplegic CP. Greater understanding of performance variability as compared to typically developing (TD) peers during motor learning in VEs may inform clinical decisions about practice dose and challenge progression.Purpose: (1) To quantify within-child (i.e., across different timepoints) and between-child (i.e., between children at the same timepoint) variability in motor skill acquisition, retention and transfer in a non-immersive VE in children with CP as compared to TD children; and (2) To explore the relationship between the amount of within-child variability during skill acquisition and learning outcomes.Methods: Secondary data analysis of 2 studies in which 13 children with hemiplegic CP and 67 TD children aged 7–14 years undertook repeated trials of a novel standing postural control task in acquisition, retention and transfer sessions. Changes in performance across trials and sessions in children with CP as compared to TD children and between younger (7–10 years) and older (11–14 years) children were assessed using mixed effects models. Raw scores were converted to z-scores to meet model distributional assumptions. Performance variability was quantified as the standard deviation of z-scores.Results: TD children outperformed children with CP and older children outperformed younger children at each session. Older children with CP had the least between-child variability in acquisition and the most in retention, while older TD children demonstrated the opposite pattern. Younger children with CP had consistently high between-child variability, with no difference between sessions. Within-child variability was highest in younger children, regardless of group. Within-child variability was more pronounced in TD children as compared to children with CP. The relationship between the amount of within-child variability in performance and performance outcome at acquisition, retention and transfer sessions was task-specific, with a positive correlation for 1 study and a negative correlation in the other.Conclusions: Findings, though preliminary and limited by small sample size, can inform subsequent research to explore VE-specific causes of performance variability, including differing movement execution requirements and individual characteristics such as motivation, attention and visuospatial abilities.

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Role of Verbal Memory in Reading Text Comprehension of Individuals With Down Syndrome

American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities ◽

10.1352/1944-7558-116.2.99 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 116 (2) ◽

pp. 99-110 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Maria Chiara Levorato ◽

Maja Roch ◽

Elena Florit

Keyword(s):

Down Syndrome ◽

Verbal Memory ◽

Text Comprehension ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

Unique Contribution ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Verbal Skills ◽

Reading Text ◽

Primary Variable ◽

The Relationship

Abstract This study analyzed the relationship between verbal memory and reading text comprehension in individuals with Down syndrome. The hypothesis that verbal memory provides unique contribution to reading text comprehension after controlling for verbal skills was tested. Twenty-three individuals with Down syndrome (ages 11 years, 2 months–18 years, 1 month) were matched on reading text comprehension, which was the primary variable of interest, with 23 typically developing children (ages 6 years, 2 months–7 years, 1 month). The two groups were compared on verbal skills and verbal memory. The results showed that working memory (concurrent storage and processing functions), but not short-term memory, predicted unique variance in reading text comprehension, after the verbal skills were controlled for. No group differences emerged in the relationship between verbal memory and reading text comprehension.

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Vocal Interaction Between Children With Down Syndrome and Their Parents

American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology ◽

10.1044/2014_ajslp-12-0010 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 23 (3) ◽

pp. 474-485 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Kathy S. Thiemann-Bourque ◽

Steven F. Warren ◽

Nancy Brady ◽

Jill Gilkerson ◽

Jeffrey A. Richards

Keyword(s):

Down Syndrome ◽

Language Learning ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Older Children ◽

Early Language ◽

Children With Down Syndrome ◽

Alternative Intervention ◽

Language Environment ◽

Digital Language ◽

Conversational Turns

Purpose The purpose of this study was to describe differences in parent input and child vocal behaviors of children with Down syndrome (DS) compared with typically developing (TD) children. The goals were to describe the language learning environments at distinctly different ages in early childhood. Method Nine children with DS and 9 age-matched TD children participated; 4 children in each group were ages 9–11 months, and 5 were between 25 and 54 months. Measures were derived from automated vocal analysis. A digital language processor measured the richness of the child's language environment, including number of adult words, conversational turns, and child vocalizations. Results Analyses indicated no significant differences in words spoken by parents of younger versus older children with DS and significantly more words spoken by parents of TD children than parents of children with DS. Differences between the DS and TD groups were observed in rates of all vocal behaviors, with no differences noted between the younger versus older children with DS, and the younger TD children did not vocalize significantly more than the younger DS children. Conclusions Parents of children with DS continue to provide consistent levels of input across the early language learning years; however, child vocal behaviors remain low after the age of 24 months, suggesting the need for additional and alternative intervention approaches.

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THE SENSE OF EMPOWERMENT AMONG PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

SOCIETY INTEGRATION EDUCATION Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference ◽

10.17770/sie2018vol1.3286 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

pp. 27-36

Author(s):

Anna Banasiak

Keyword(s):

Down Syndrome ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Demographic Variables ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Autistic Children ◽

Typically Developing Children ◽

Statistical Tools ◽

Mothers And Fathers ◽

Children With Down Syndrome ◽

The Relationship

The aim of this study was to examine the level of a sense of empowerment among mothers and fathers of children with autism. The relationship between a sense of empowerment and socio-demographic variables characterising the respondents including the parents was also analysed. Among the participants, there were 74 parents of autistic children (39 mothers, 35 fathers), 77 parents of children with Down syndrome (40 mothers, 37 fathers) as well as 80 parents of typically developing children (40 mothers, 40 fathers). Two statistical tools, namely the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test, were employed in this study. The results show a higher level of a sense of empowerment when it comes to the evaluation of own knowledge and competences in mothers of autistic children than in mothers of children with Down syndrome, contrary to fathers of autistic children whose level of a sense of empowerment is lower within the said scope compared with fathers of children with Down syndrome.

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