Wishart J G
Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
J Intellect Disabil Res. 2007 Dec;51(Pt 12):996-1005. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2788.2007.01007.x.
Social understanding is often thought to be relatively 'protected' in children with Down's syndrome (DS) and to underlie the outgoing personality characteristically attributed to them. This paper draws together findings from our studies of behaviours during object concept testing, generally considered a theoretically 'pure' measure of early cognitive ability, and from more recent work focusing on two key socio-cognitive skills: recognising facial expressions of emotion and collaborative learning. Age range of children studied was 4 months to 18 years.
Using standardised hiding tasks, object concept ability was assessed cross-sectionally and longitudinally in children with DS and in age- or stage-matched typically developing (TD) children. Stability of cognitive advances was assessed and similarities/differences in developmental pathways explored. In the emotion recognition studies, the ability to distinguish six primary emotions was measured, with performance compared with that of developmentally-matched TD children and age-matched children with intellectual disabilities of similar severity but differing aetiology [non-specific intellectual disability (NSID) or fragile X syndrome (FXS)]. In the collaborative learning study, the impact on sorting skills of working with a peer on a conceptually related task was measured, with outcomes compared in DS, NSID and TD child pairings.
Evidence of counterproductive, socially-based strategies being inappropriately applied by children with DS in learning contexts was found in both the object concept and collaborative learning studies, along with inefficient use of current cognitive and linguistic abilities. Emotion recognition weaknesses were also identified, although deficits were relative rather than absolute and individual variability was marked.
In line with emerging evidence from other research teams, findings suggest possible difficulties in some core aspects of interpersonal functioning in DS, with both qualitative and quantitative differences in how social cognition develops and is applied in learning contexts. Implications for development and for behavioural phenotype theory are briefly discussed.
人们通常认为，唐氏综合征（DS）患儿的社会理解能力相对“受保护”，并构成了他们典型外向性格的基础。本文汇总了我们在物体概念测试过程中的行为研究结果，物体概念测试通常被认为是对早期认知能力在理论上“纯粹”的衡量标准，同时还汇总了近期针对两项关键社会认知技能的研究结果：识别面部表情和合作学习。所研究儿童的年龄范围为4个月至18岁。
使用标准化的藏物任务，对DS患儿以及年龄或发育阶段匹配的正常发育（TD）儿童进行物体概念能力的横断面和纵向评估。评估认知进展的稳定性，并探索发育途径中的异同。在情绪识别研究中，测量区分六种基本情绪的能力，并将表现与发育匹配的TD儿童以及年龄匹配、严重程度相似但病因不同（非特异性智力障碍（NSID）或脆性X综合征（FXS））的智障儿童进行比较。在合作学习研究中，测量在概念相关任务中与同伴合作对分类技能的影响，并比较DS、NSID和TD儿童配对的结果。
在物体概念和合作学习研究中均发现DS患儿在学习情境中不适当地应用了适得其反的、基于社会的策略，同时当前认知和语言能力的使用效率低下。还发现了情绪识别方面的弱点，尽管缺陷是相对的而非绝对的，且个体差异明显。
与其他研究团队的新证据一致，研究结果表明DS患者在人际功能的某些核心方面可能存在困难，社会认知在学习情境中的发展和应用在质量和数量上都存在差异。简要讨论了对发展和行为表型理论的影响。
