Motor Skills and Adaptive Skills in Preschoolers With Down syndrome

Background/Purpose: Adaptive skills or activities of daily living are the skills needed to maintain a normal quality of life. Adaptive skills are a key indicator of disability status. The purpose of this study is to examine cognition, motor skills, and adaptive skills in a sample of preschool children with Down syndrome.  Many individuals with Down syndrome experience developmental delays.  These delays can be cognitive, physical, or social. By better understanding the developmental profiles of preschool children with Down syndrome, service providers can better target educational and therapeutic services to improve adaptive function and decrease disability status.  

Method: Adaptive skills, intellect, and motor skills were evaluated in 10 children (aged 36 to 65 months) with Down syndrome (6 female: 4 male). Participants were recruited from a comprehensive early childhood education program. Adaptive skills were evaluated using the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales – Interview Edition. Non-verbal IQ was measured using the Leiter international performance scale (Leiter-R) brief IQ. Motor skills were measured using the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales, 2^nd edition.  Data was collected over a month with one week dedicated to each test.  The 4^th week was used to measure students who were absent during testing.

Analysis/Results: Results of the sample indicated that children with Down syndrome developmentally lag from typically developing peers across all motor skills by 10 to 20 months. Cognitive testing indicated that children with Down syndrome developmentally lag from typically developing peers in cognitive domains by 9 to 13 months. Participants performed slightly better at fluid reasoning tasks compared to fundamental visual tasks.  In the motor domain participants showed delays ranging from 16 to 20 months.  Participants were the most delayed in grasping and object manipulations tasks.  Adaptive skill strengths included receptive language and interpersonal relationships. Overall, participants showed the greatest delays in the motor domain.  Significant and positive correlations were found between communication skills and motor abilities (stationary skills, locomotor skills, and object manipulation).

Conclusions: Results of this study support previous work demonstrating global delays in children with Down syndrome.  This study took a comprehensive approach to examining intellect, motor skills, and adaptive skills. By better understanding the adaptive strengths and weaknesses, educators and allied health professionals can better focus therapeutic interventions to decrease developmental delays.