Collab Topic - Occupational Therapy | Pinnacle Blooms Network

MENTAL DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN WITH DOWN SYNDROME

People with Down syndrome also experience learning difficulties that lead to delays in many areas of development. However, not all areas of development are affected equally - there are particular patterns of learning difficulties.

Expressive language, grammar and speech clarity Children with Down syndrome show specific delays in learning to use spoken language relative to their non-verbal understanding. Almost every child will have expressive language that is delayed relative to their language comprehension. The children experience two types of expressive difficulty - delay in mastering sentence structures and grammar, and specific difficulties in developing clear speech production.

The gap between the children's understanding and their ability to express themselves is a cause of much frustration and can sometimes lead to behaviour problems. It can also result in the children's cognitive abilities being underestimated. Language delay also leads to cognitive delay as much human learning is through language and language is internalised for thinking, remembering and self-organisation.

Number skills
Most children with Down syndrome struggle with basic number skills and their number skills are typically some 2 years behind their reading skills. There is a need for more research into the reasons for this. Currently.

The ability of children with Down syndrome to hold and process verbal information is not as good as their ability to hold and process visual information. These verbal short-term memory problems make it more difficult to learn new words and sentences. They also make it more difficult to process spoken language and this can adversely affect learning in the classroom.
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