Results demonstrated that when compared with normally developing children of the same mental age, the Down's syndrome Ss (6 to 12 years old) evidenced a more homogeneous pattern of syntactic usage and tended to acquire only low-level syntactic structures, as identified by the Developmental Sentence Scoring procedure. (Author)

Exploratory behaviors of Down Syndrome and nondelayed young children between the mental ages of 16 and 32 months were examined in four situations in which they tried to find things which they saw reflected in a mirror. Down Syndrome and nondelayed children differed in number, type, and frequency of exploratory behaviors. (PCB)

Investigates the influence of chronological age, mental age, and handicapping condition on mothers' interactions with their handicapped young children. A total of 111 handicapped children ranging in age from 3 to 36 months and their mothers participated. Infants' general functioning and handicapping conditions were related to maternal…

Findings of three studies indicate that young children with Down syndrome perform similarly to typical controls matched on mental ages (MAs) of approximately 3 years. However, by developmental age of 4 years, children with Down syndrome performed worse than both MA-matched typical children and children with non-Down syndrome types of mental…

Verbal short-term memory, as measured by digit or word span, is generally impaired in individuals with Down's syndrome (DS) compared to mental age-matched controls. Moving from the working memory model, the present authors investigated the hypothesis that impairment in some of the articulatory loop sub-components is at the base of the deficient…

Examines differences in habituation in a visual attention task as a function of chronological age, mental age, and handicapping condition. Subjects were 102 children who ranged in age from 3 to 36 months and who were classified as Down Syndrome, cerebral palsied, developmentally delayed, or multiply handicapped. (Author/RH)

A lock box for investigating preschool children's problem-solving behavior was used with 17 Down syndrome children and 17 normal children, all of whom had a mean age of 37.4 months. Small children showed greater competence, more organization, and less perseverance than those with Down syndrome. (RH)

Examined the nature of repetitive, ritualistic, and compulsive-like behaviors in typically developing and children and individuals with Down Syndrome (DS), matched on mental age (MA). Found that that both groups showed similar MA-related changes in compulsive-like behaviors. Younger children showed more compulsive-like behaviors than older.…

Language delay became increasingly apparent with age, and more so in boys than in girls. There was no significant difference between mental ages derived from standard ability tests and corresponding age equivalent scores of a symbolic play test. A developmental progression of play similar to that seen in non-handicapped groups was found. (RH)

Nine infants with Down's syndrome, seven nonhandicapped infants, and one severely handicapped infant were given the choice of listening to familiar nursery rhymes or to the same rhymes with each word reversed so that the rhythms, intonation and stress patterns were kept intact but the words became nonsense. (RH)

A comparison of 33 Australian adolescents with Down syndrome who did not receive early intervention services and 41 adolescents with Down syndrome who had received early intervention services found no significant difference between the two cohorts in cognitive functioning. Socioeconomic status, mothers' education, and gender were predictors of…

Fast mapping of novel words for objects was compared in 48 children/adolescents with Down syndrome and 48 mental-age matched children. The groups did not differ in their ability to infer a connection between the novel word and referent, comprehend the novel word after a single exposure, and produce the novel word correctly. (Author/JDD)

This study found that 16 preschoolers with Down's syndrome attained higher age equivalents and standard scores in "socialization" than did 16 preschoolers with autism. Adaptive age equivalent was positively related to chronological age for children with Down's syndrome in all domains, but only in "communication" for children with autism.…

This study, involving 48 children and adolescents with Down's syndrome, found that chronological age and mean mental age collectively accounted for much of subjects' variability in vocabulary comprehension and syntax comprehension, with total passes on a hearing screening accounting for additional variability. (Author/DB)

Six Hong Kong preschoolers with Down syndrome who attended a center-based educational intervention program were assessed and matched on age, mental age (MA), and IQ. Three of the preschoolers also attended regular preschools two days per week. After a year, the children who also had attended regular preschool had higher MA and IQ. (Author/CR)