Abstract
This study is designed to determine the cognitive impairments in individuals with Down syndrome. This study was conducted in September to November 2014. Sample of 30 patients was taken by using purposive sampling technique within three months. Observational and Cross-sectional study design was used. This was a hospital-based study in which patients with Down’s syndrome between the age range of 5-18 and both genders were included. A structured questionnaire was developed that was based on Piaget’s theory of cognitive development to assess the cognitive abilities by assessing tasks related to developmental ages. Out of those 30 patients 15(50٪) were male and 15(50٪) were females. Most of the patients were found in age range of 5-10 years according to frequency 16 (53.3٪) followed by 10 (33.3٪) patients in 10-15 years and 4 (13.3٪) in 15-20 years. The preoperational stage of cognitive development showed that the girls were more impaired. Pretend-play (boys (50%), girls(46.7%)),Centration(boys(40.%), girls(33.3%) and irreversibility boys (50%) girls(40.%) are the aspects in which boys were tending to show better than boys. In concrete operational stage and in formal operational stage both genders were tending to show equal impairments in their cognitive aspects. In the children with Down syndrome it is observed that there is high frequency of cognitive impairment and girls are more cognitively impaired than boys. While the tasks which require more accuracy and intelligence such as reasoning, meta-cognition, inductive and deductive reasoning are rarely present in both genders. Keywords: Down syndrome, pre-operational, concrete-operational and formal-operational. DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/71-12 Publication date: February 29 th 2020
Highlights
Down syndrome is an inherited autosomal aberration in which there is an extra chromosome, 21, in about 95% of patients
Age ranges and gender represented by using Pie Chart and cognitive impairment represented by using Bar Charts. 1.1.1 Results This study had been conducted in Developmental Pediatrics department of Children Hospital, Institute of Child Health Lahore and Rising Sun Institute for Special Children
Cognition is a term used to describe higher mental functions associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, perception, attention span, learning and communication
Summary
Down syndrome is an inherited autosomal aberration in which there is an extra chromosome, 21, in about 95% of patients. This medical complication is caused by the abnormal number of chromosomes either the number of chromosomes become more than normal, or they can become less than normal in this condition Defects which cause this syndrome may include: congenital heart defects , hearing loss , poor vision , cataracts (clouded eyes) , hip problems, such as dislocations , leukemia , chronic constipation , sleep apnea (interrupted breathing during sleep) , dementia (thought and memory problems) , hypothyroidism (low thyroid function) , obesity , late tooth growth, causing problems with chewing Cognition can be defined as “all the mental activities associated www.iiste.org with thinking, remembering, perception, attention span, learning and communication”(4) Cognition deals with the understanding of a person. It deals with the abilities, skills or processes that are part of every human action
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