Infants with Down syndrome and their interactions with objects: development of exploratory actions after reaching onset.

de Campos et al. (2013) watched babies with Down syndrome play with toys. They compared these babies to typically developing babies of the same age.

The team counted how often each baby reached for toys and how many different ways they explored them. They started when the babies first began to reach and kept watching to see if the gap closed.

The Down syndrome babies touched toys less often. Their play was also simpler — fewer shakes, bangs, or turns.

Most important, the difference did not shrink as the babies got older. The gap stayed the same week after week.

McGonigle et al. (2014) followed the same pattern into grade school. Eight- to fourteen-year-olds with Down syndrome still showed fewer new ways to use objects. The infant gap simply never closed.

Marchal et al. (2016) tracked the same Down syndrome babies for ten years. They found social skills stayed strongest, while daily living skills stayed weakest. Early object exploration predicted later adaptive scores.

Herrero et al. (2017) looked at even younger babies. At three to five months, most infants with Down syndrome already showed unusual fidgety movements. Poor early motor signs and low object exploration fit together.

If you work with babies or toddlers with Down syndrome, do not wait for exploration to “catch up.” Start structured play sessions early. Offer many small, easy-to-grasp items. Model one new action at a time — shake, roll, bang — and give plenty of practice trials. Track each new action on a simple data sheet. The earlier you build these skills, the better the child’s long-term adaptive trajectory.