Down's syndrome, research and practice : the journal of the Sarah Duffen Centre最新文献

This paper shows that some individuals with Down syndrome are capable of producing, imitating (repeating) and comprehending passive sentences, even though group studies indicate that this is not the norm. Experimental tests of elicited production, repetition and comprehension of passive and active sentences applied in ten adolescents with Down syndrome, speakers of Portuguese, showed that out of the ten adolescents, one, Fa, is able to produce, imitate and comprehend passive sentences. It is hypothesised that, when there is no comprehension, or when the comprehension of reversible passives is unstable, the passive is understood as active, because the first noun of the passive sentence is interpreted as agent/causer of the action/non-action. This hypothesis is strong inasmuch as it assumes that both active and passive have very similar initial derivations. There is not, however, strong evidence that the nine adolescents interpret the passive as active. But if it is assumed that their chance results in comprehension of the passive is due to the fact that they are beginning to understand it, then it could be said that, for around 50% of the time, the adolescents with Down syndrome interpret the passive as active. Fa, on the other hand, does not interpret the passive as active, as she produces, imitates and comprehends the passive structure very well.

This study examined parents' behaviours as they waited with their child. Children were presented with an attractively wrapped gift and then asked not to touch it until the experimenter returned from finishing some work in another room. Three parent groups and their children participated in the study - parents of children with Down syndrome, parents of children with intellectual disability from another cause, and parents of children who were developing typically. There were no significant differences between children in how long they were able to wait before touching the gift. The data from the first two groups were combined for all analyses after it was established that there were no significant differences between them. There were few significant differences between parents of a child with intellectual disability and comparison parents. The former group were more likely to be classified as Authoritarian than were comparison parents, however with one exception, parenting style was unrelated to the strategies parents used in the waiting situation. Very few parents in either group used the opportunity to teach or explicitly praise effective waiting strategies in their children.

The relationship between poor health and cognitive impairment is not fully understood yet. People with Down syndrome are prone to a number of health problems, including congenital heart defect, visual impairment, hearing loss, autoimmune diseases, epilepsy, early-onset Alzheimer's disease and intellectual disability. Our aim was to assess the impact of impaired health on cognitive performance in people with Down syndrome. A series of people with Down syndrome (n=129) were studied for their intellectual disability, sensory impairments and health concerns. The medical and psychological records of all persons with Down syndrome in the Intellectual Disability Service Register of Kainuu from 1970 to 2004 were analysed. The detected health issues were related to the individuals' cognitive levels. Visual impairment, poor dental health and acute neurological disease were associated with the severity of intellectual disability and ageing.

Children with Down syndrome are at an increased risk for engaging in challenging behaviour that may be part of a behavioural phenotype characteristic of Down syndrome. The methodology of applied behaviour analysis has been demonstrated effective with a wide range of challenging behaviours, across various disabilities. Applications to children with Down syndrome and the examination of behaviourally based strategies to specifically address the unique characteristics of children with Down syndrome are limited. However, there are several studies in which a subset of the participants did have Down syndrome. A handful of these studies are reviewed within the context of functional behaviour assessment and Positive Behavioural Supports. Drawing from these studies and the behavioural literature, as well as the authors' clinical experience and research, suggestions regarding early intervention for challenging behaviour with children with Down syndrome are provided.

For some time it has been claimed that trisomic cells are more sensitive to oxidative stress since there is an imbalance in hydrogen peroxide metabolism due to an increase in superoxide dismutase (SOD) catalytic activity. We designed the present study to assess activity levels of antioxidant enzymes [superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), catalase (CAT) and glucose-6-phosphate-dehydrogenase (G6PDH)] in erythrocytes in 31 male adolescents with Down syndrome (mean age 16.3 +/- 1.1). An increase of 35.2%, 15.3% and 14.9% in the catalytic activity of SOD, GPx and G6PDH respectively was observed in male adolescents with Down syndrome compared to age-matched controls. For CAT, a slight increase of 6.0% was also found. It is concluded that our data are consistent with previous evidence of the existence of oxidative stress in individuals with Down syndrome as revealed by significantly enhanced activities of SOD and GPx. The most striking feature was that G6PDH, in contrast to CAT, presented a similar behaviour. Further studies are required to identify other antioxidant enzymes in red blood cells as well as in white blood cells in order to increase the range of potential bioindicators of oxidative stress.

Responsive Teaching is an early intervention curriculum designed to address the cognitive, language, and social emotional needs of young children with developmental problems. This innovative intervention model was derived from research conducted primarily with children with Down syndrome and their mothers. Results from these studies indicated that during the early childhood years, parents promote their children's development by engaging in highly responsive interactions throughout their daily routines. The effects of responsiveness are mediated by the impact it has on children's use of several pivotal developmental behaviours, such as social play, attention, initiation and persistence. Responsive Teaching helps parents learn to use Responsive Teaching strategies to promote the pivotal developmental behaviours that are relevant to their children's developmental needs. Research with 50 children with developmental problems and their parents indicated that Responsive Teaching was highly effective at addressing children's developmental and social emotional needs. The effects of this intervention were mediated by the impact that RT strategies had on children's pivotal developmental behaviours.

Children with Down syndrome often display speech-comprehensibility and grammatical deficits beyond what would be predicted based upon general mental age. Historically, speech-comprehensibility has often been treated using traditional articulation therapy and oral-motor training so there may be little or no coordination of grammatical and speech-comprehensibility treatment. The purpose of this paper is to provide the rationale for and preliminary evidence in support of integrating speech and grammatical intervention using a type of recast treatment in six children with Down syndrome. Speech-comprehensibility and MLU growth in generalisation sessions occurred in 4/6 and 5/6 participants, respectively. Using multiple baseline design logic, two of these participants showed evidence of treatment effects on speech-comprehensibility and two in MLU in generalisation sessions, respectively. The study constitutes a conservative test of the intervention effects for reasons that are discussed. The theoretical and applied significance of these findings are discussed.

Motor control has long been associated with language skill, in deficits, both acquired and developmental, and in typical development. Most evidence comes from limb praxis however; the link between oral motor control and speech and language has been neglected, despite the fact that most language users talk with their mouths. Oral motor control is affected in a variety of developmental disorders, including Down syndrome. However, its development is poorly understood. We investigated oral motor control in three groups: adults with acquired aphasia, individuals with developmental dysphasia, and typically developing children. In individuals with speech and language difficulties, oral motor control was impaired. More complex movements and sets of movements were even harder for individuals with language impairments. In typically developing children (21-24 months), oral motor control was found to be related to language skills. In both studies, a closer relationship was found between language and complex oral movements than simple oral movements. This relationship remained when the effect of overall cognitive ability was removed. Children who were poor at oral movements were not good at language, although children who were good at oral movements could fall anywhere on the distribution of language abilities. Oral motor skills may be a necessary precursor for language skills.

The mental health, adaptive behaviour and intellectual abilities of people with Down syndrome (n=129) were evaluated in a population-based survey of social and health care records. Females had better cognitive abilities and speech production compared with males. Males had more behavioural problems than females. Behaviour suggestive of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder was often seen in childhood. Depression was diagnosed mainly in adults with mild to moderate intellectual disability. Autistic behaviour was most common in individuals with profound intellectual disability. Elderly people often showed decline of adaptive behaviour associated with Alzheimer's disease. Case descriptions are presented to illustrate the multitude of mental health and behavioural issues seen from childhood to old age in this population.