Development of Children with Downs Syndrome - Research Paper Example

The researchers predicted that children with Down syndrome would behave more behavior and language problems than other children and that these variables would lead to lower overall popularity.

Sixteen children (eight girls, eight boys) with Down syndrome took part in this study. They were matched with children of the same gender without Down syndrome but from the same class. All of the participants were in the range of seven to eleven years old. To obtain popularity scores, children answered questionnaires (which were pretested) about their friendships. Behavior (destructivity, withdrawnness, aggressiveness, etc.) was measured using an existing scale as well as reports from teachers, and language scores for children with Down syndrome were attained with a set of four scales and tests.

The results of these tests were statistically analyzed. During this process, popularity Z scores were used to divide the students into three groups: high, low, and average acceptance. It was found that there is no significant difference between the popularity of children with Down syndrome, that of mainstream classmates. This level of acceptance was not expected by the researchers and offered an interesting result to be further investigated. Behavior problems were more common with children who have Down syndrome, but the predicted connection between these problems and acceptance was only seen in mainstream relationships.

Reasons for this result are offered, such as sympathy towards students with Down syndrome, or other positive aspects of their personality making up for behavior issues. Additionally, the language skills of children with Down syndrome were unrelated to their popularity. This study concludes with the optimistic outlook that, even though they tend to have more behavior and language problems than mainstream students, acceptance of children with Down syndrome is not a significant problem in school children of the given age group.

However, there is still evidence that these children are less likely to be chosen to bring home or to be invited to events by other students. The authors state that this may be the result of parental interference and not a sign of the true feelings of school children. Further research is required to clear up this matter.