Using developmental trajectories to examine verbal and visuospatial short-term memory development in children and adolescents with Williams and Down syndromes.
Short-term memory weaknesses in Williams and Down syndromes track with general cognitive development rather than widening over time.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers tracked short-term memory growth in children and teens with Williams and Down syndromes. They mapped how verbal and visuospatial memory scores changed as kids got older. The team compared these growth curves to typically developing peers.
What they found
Both syndrome groups stayed on the same slow upward track as typical kids. Memory gaps did not widen with age. Verbal and visuospatial skills grew at matching rates within each group.
How this fits with other research
Hawley et al. (2004) saw a sharp verbal span drop in Down syndrome and blamed central executive glitches. The new data say the gap stays flat, not growing. Method gap: the 2004 study tested single-age teens, while the 2013 paper watched the same kids across years.
H-Fournier et al. (2004) also found shorter sentence memory in Down syndrome and ruled out slow speech as the cause. Their snapshot aligns with the flat trajectory shown here.
Yang et al. (2014) linked better executive function to stronger language in adults with Down syndrome. Together the papers hint that memory support plus EF training may help language at any age.
Why it matters
You can stop fearing that memory deficits will snowball. Set goals that expect slow but steady gains, not a falling further behind. Use the same memory strategies across childhood and adolescence; no need to switch tactics as clients age. Pair verbal tasks with visuospatial ones—both domains grow together, so reinforcing one may lift the other.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Williams (WS) and Down (DS) syndromes have been associated with specifically compromised short-term memory (STM) subsystems. Individuals with WS have shown impairments in visuospatial STM, while individuals with DS have often shown problems with the recall of verbal material. However, studies have not usually compared the development of STM skills in these domains, in these populations. The present study employed a cross-sectional developmental trajectories approach, plotting verbal and visuospatial STM performance against more general cognitive and chronological development, to investigate how the domain-specific skills of individuals with WS and DS may change as development progresses, as well as whether the difference between STM skill domains increases, in either group, as development progresses. Typically developing children, of broadly similar cognitive ability to the clinical groups, were also included. Planned between- and within-group comparisons were carried out. Individuals with WS and DS both showed the domain-specific STM weaknesses in overall performance that were expected based on the respective cognitive profiles. However, skills in both groups developed, according to general cognitive development, at similar rates to those of the TD group. In addition, no significant developmental divergence between STM domains was observed in either clinical group according to mental age or chronological age, although the general pattern of findings indicated that the influence of the latter variable across STM domains, particularly in WS, might merit further investigation.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2013 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2013.07.012