Perception and Perceptual-Motor Processes in Children with Down's Syndrome

Summary

Some controversy exists regarding visual discrimination of form and its execution. The hypothesis that an inability to reproduce a display is not necessarily an indication that the display has been incorrectly perceived was examined in 34 mongol children (15 male, 19 female, mean CA 11.9 years) matched for MA with a control group of 25 normal children (10 male, 15 female, mean CA 4.2 years). Fifteen mongol children (six male and nine female) were identified who revealed perceptual deficits on block construction tests, and experimental work was conducted to determine the extent and nature of this impairment. The construction tests consisted of various displays made from five equal sized blocks. This was followed by an identification test consisting of two dimensional representations of the block designs printed on cards. All 15 mongol children were able to recognize and identify correctly a display from a selection which corresponded to a stimulus display, and 11 were able to go further and recognize a two dimensional representation of the stimulus. There was no significant difference between males and females. The experimental work reported here supports the hypothesis.