Infants with Down syndrome: percentage and age for acquisition of gross motor skills.
Expect a 2-4 month motor delay in babies with Down syndrome and plan early, targeted gross-motor goals.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Griesi-Oliveira et al. (2013) watched babies with Down syndrome learn to move. They tracked rolling, sitting, and standing in the first year of life.
The team used a checklist each month. They wrote down which babies could do each skill and when.
What they found
Most babies with Down syndrome met skills 2-4 months later than typical babies. No baby stood alone by 12 months.
Only half could sit without help at one year. Rolling came late too.
How this fits with other research
Fleury et al. (2019) gives a bigger, better map. They watched 509 kids with Down syndrome up to age five and charted 44 motor skills. Their work replaces the 2013 small snapshot with full growth curves.
Dembo et al. (2023) used the same baby group but looked at thinking and talking, not moving. Together the papers show delays across motor, cognitive, and language areas in the first 18 months.
Polo-López et al. (2014) jumped ahead to teens. They found many teens stay inactive, hinting that early motor delays may lead to later low fitness.
Why it matters
Know the 2-4 month lag so you can start early. Build goals for prone play, sitting balance, and upright support into the IFSP. Track progress with the 2019 Down-syndrome curves, not typical charts. Early, steady practice may protect against the low teen activity shown in later studies.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The literature is bereft of information about the age at which infants with Down syndrome (DS) acquire motor skills and the percentage of infants that do so by the age of 12 months. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the difference in age, in relation to typical infants, at which motor skills were acquired and the percentage of infants with DS that acquire them in the first year of life. Infants with DS (N=20) and typical infants (N=25), both aged between 3 and 12 months, were evaluated monthly using the AIMS. In the prone position, a difference of up to 3 months was found for the acquisition of the 3rd to 16th skill. There was a difference in the percentage of infants with DS who acquired the 10th to 21st skill (from 71% to 7%). In the supine position, a difference of up to one month was found from the 3rd to 7th skill; however, 100% were able to perform these skills. In the sitting position, a difference of 1-4 months was found from the 1st to 12th skill, ranging from 69% to 29% from the 9th to 12th. In the upright position, the difference was 2-3 months from the 3rd to 8th skill. Only 13% acquired the 8th skill and no other skill was acquired up to the age of 12 months. The more complex the skills the greater the difference in age between typical infants and those with DS and the lower the percentage of DS individuals who performed the skills in the prone, sitting and upright positions. None of the DS infants were able to stand without support.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2013 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2012.11.021