Down Syndrome: An Assessment of Infant Psychomotor Development and Its Impact on Social and Familial Integration

Abstract

There are currently no specific tests to observe and assess development in infants with Down syndrome (DS), so follow-up programs and performance assessments are required. Moreover, such programs encourage early and appropriate intervention to ensure psychomotor and cognitive development to the child's full potential, paving the way for integration at school, at work, in society and within the family.This paper describes a longitudinal prospective study analysing and describing psychomotor and cognitive assessment in patients with DS in the first two years of life. The included subjects were infants with DS born in the Hospital Materno Infantil Ramón Sardá (HMIRS) as well as referrals from other institutions aged 1 day to 2 years. The subjects were evaluated over a 12-month period, with the Escala de Evaluación del Desarrollo Psicomotor (EEDP - Psychomotor Development Assessment Scale) by Rodríguez et al. and the Escala Argentina de Inteligencia Sensorio-Motriz (EAIS-Argentine Scale of Sensory-Motor Intelligence) by Oiberman et al. administered monthly.This provided a mean age of acquisition of early motor milestones and a measurement of deviation from the population-wide mean in every area (language, motor skills, coordination, and social skills) with ensuing detection of the areas most compromised.A survey assessed the emotional, economic and social impact these children had on their families, and whether this impact might influence their development.