Entrenamiento de las habilidades comunicativas en los niños con síndrome de Down

Abstract

This study analyzes the ability of normal children and a group of children with Down's syndrome to improve their communicative skills via training. Interaction between children and adults pre- and post-training was compared. The study used a referential-ecological communicative paradigm, in which two children communicate with each other under the supervision of un adult who offers communicative guidance. The results show that children with Down's syndrome showed more independence vis-à-vis the adult's guidance after training, but their communicative efficiency did not improve. The main differences between the two types of children post-training were: normal children grew more independent of the adult, learning (more efficiently than the Down's syndrome children) to implement methods of regulating their communication.