Behavior of young children with Down syndrome before the mirror: finding things reflected

Abstract

Children with Down syndrome (DS) and normally developing (ND) children of comparable mental age (16-32 months) were compared in their ability to find things seen in the mirror. Tasks included finding a rouge mark on the face, finding the mother, finding a toy, as well as free play before the mirror. The 2 groups were found to be equally likely to solve each task and did not differ in pattern of tasks solved or amount of prompting to notice the stimulus. With increasing mental age, both groups required less prompting and were more likely to locate the stimulus. Children with and without DS were not equally interested in particular tasks, and children with DS were more attentive to the mirror overall, whereas ND children tended to lose interest more rapidly in some task situations. The significance of incorrect strategies in searching for the reflected mother or toy was also examined. It was concluded that the ability of children with DS to solve different kinds of mirror tasks paralleled that of ND children, but that motivational, attentional, and exploratory differences may exist.