Object-related generativity in children with Down syndrome.
Kids with Down syndrome need extra help to try new ways with new objects, so weave structured generativity drills into everyday play.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team watched 8- to young learners play with new toys.
They compared the kids with Down syndrome to the kids with other intellectual disability and 30 typically developing kids.
Each child got five minutes alone with a box of unfamiliar objects.
Researchers counted how often the child picked up a new item and how many new ways they used it.
What they found
Kids with Down syndrome touched fewer new objects.
They also showed fewer new actions, like turning a cup into a hat or a stick into a sword.
Both other groups tried more ideas and used more items.
The gap stayed even when mental age was the same.
How this fits with other research
Eussen et al. (2016) saw the same pattern in younger kids.
Their 3- to young learners with Down syndrome gave up sooner on a waiting game.
Together, the two studies show limited flexible thinking starts early and lasts.
Marchal et al. (2016) links these behavior limits to school trouble.
They found kids with Down syndrome who show more aggression and attention issues finish fewer classroom tasks.
The new toy task may spot the same rigid style before it hurts school work.
Glenn et al. (2007) adds a twist.
They showed that routines help very young kids with Down syndrome but turn into problems after mental age 5.
So early play that builds new ideas could keep helpful routines from becoming roadblocks later.
Why it matters
You can build generativity right into sessions.
Start with one familiar toy, then add a new item every two minutes.
Praise any new action, even tiny ones.
Over weeks, the child will reach for more objects and invent more uses, making play and learning less rigid.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Children with Down syndrome (DS) show challenges in some aspects of goal-directed behavior when compared to developmentally matched children (Daunhauer et al., 2014; Lee et al., 2011), particularly in the area of goal-directed action on objects (Fidler et al., 2005a,b). In this study, we examined one aspect of goal-directed action on objects, object-related generativity, in school-aged children with DS (n = 52), a developmentally matched group of children with intellectual disability, but not Down syndrome (DD; n = 21), and a group of chronologically younger, but developmentally matched typically developing children (TD; n = 34). We administered the Leiter-R, the Oral and Written Language Scales (OWLS), and an Object-Related Generativity Task, which involved 2 min of unstructured play with a variety of objects that have divergent usages. Children with DS generated significantly fewer instances of initiating actions on new objects than children in both comparison groups, were less likely to produce novel functional action on any object (new or familiar) than TD children, and they showed fewer instances of novel functional object engagement with new objects overall than TD children. Frequency of acts on new objects in DS was associated with Leiter-R Form Completion and Repeated Patterns Raw Scores and OWLS Listening Comprehension Raw Scores. These findings contribute to the growing knowledge base regarding goal-directed behavior and self-regulation in individuals with Down syndrome. Implications for education and intervention are discussed.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2014 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2014.07.024