Abstract
The study intends to raise a discussion regarding the question of whether a Mediated Learning Experience (MLE) can be considered applicable to children younger than two years with Down Syndrome (DS), to stimulate their cognitive abilities. In fact, currently MLE approach is used mainly for children of at least two years of age. The longitudinal study has been conducted for six months with a one-year-old child with DS (named T.) between 12 and 18-months of age. Sessions of video recording was conducted each week, videotaping the boy and his mother interacting in different object permanence and cause-effect activities. The article presents first a discussion about similar characteristics that can be identified between MLE and the Karlstad-model, an established approach used regularly in Norway to enhance the communication abilities of children with DS already from the first months. Then, the research presents and discusses how simple activities used also to introduce the Karlstad-model for enhancing child’s communication ability can be used to support specific cognitive functions. The study raises interest about the possibility of defining activities suitable for an MLE approach with focus on children younger than two years of age with DS. The results obtained are not generalizable but provide a starting point for discussion that opens up to possible qualitative and quantitative subsequent studies carried out on larger populations.
Highlights
1.1 Early Intervention in Sustaining the Development and Learning of Children with DisabilitiesThe application of a Mediated Leaning Experience (MLE) to children who has learning disabilities or learning difficulties has been extensively studied in the literature and the benefits of this approach have been clearly presented (Feuerstein et al, 1991; Howie, 2019; Lebeer, 2016)
In order to respect the criteria that the Mediated Learning Experience (MLE) approach define as “Individuality and psychological difference”, the first week of the study was focused on defining child’s initial cognitive functions, studying child’s reaction during object-permanence and cause-effect activities
The child clearly showed an understanding of the object-permanence, moving himself with the intent of reaching the ball hidden behind the mediator (A1), in a glass (A2) or under a box (A3)
Summary
1.1 Early Intervention in Sustaining the Development and Learning of Children with DisabilitiesThe application of a Mediated Leaning Experience (MLE) to children who has learning disabilities or learning difficulties has been extensively studied in the literature and the benefits of this approach have been clearly presented (Feuerstein et al, 1991; Howie, 2019; Lebeer, 2016). The MLE approach outlines different intervention criteria that allow children and young people to be supported in their development, regardless of their functional level (Vigoya, 2005). As it is well known, in the case of disability, a timely intervention in supporting all the child's functions is considered important, regardless of whether the disability is related to communicational, intellectual or motor skills (Kim et al, 2017; Yamauchi et al, 2019; Özçalışkan et al, 2017). The interest of this study, named BAToM project (Babies And Toddlers Mediated learning experience) and generated from the cooperation between the University of Stavanger and the International Center for Studies on Educational Methodologies (ICSEM), is to rise a discussion about the possibility of sustaining cognitive development of children with DS already from the birth through a Mediated Learning Experience
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