Many researchers claim that children with Down syndrome learn to count mechanically. According to them, they do not have conceptual understanding of numbers. A proof of their claim is the fact that when a child with Down syndrome is interupted while counting he/she cannot continue from the last number, he/she has to start counting from the begging. According to other researchers, they learn to count by principles. This research reinforces the second view. According to our research children with Down syndrome cannot continue counting from the last number and start over again because of their Short-term Memory deficit. The early intervention designed for their memory development could be proved to be of major importance to their entire cognitive development.
Good afternoon, Garifalia. In your arguments have a lot of promising ideas. Please read the two articles in the app.
All the best to you, and your country.
Vladimir
Thank you very much for your valuable contribution to the discussion.
An important variable would be at which number is the count interrupted? If a person with DS were stopped after counting to 2 or possibly 3 and they needed to recount, my thought would be that they do no have basic number concept. A mental age of at least 3 it seems to me would allow the person to immediately recognize up to "threeness" without counting. Beyond that, no fancy explanations needed: it sounds like they've lost their place.
Dear Miriam cherkes-julkowski,
The sample of the study consisted of 40 boys and girls with Down syndrome. Their mental age raned from 4 to 7 years. An experiment was designed in order to check the role not only of their short - term memory deficiency but also their innate visual representation of number. The statistical analysis proved that almost all children could count larger number strings while they were writing simultaneously the number that they produced. In fact, one of the main findings is that their low performance in enumeration skills could be owning to the way they are asked to orally express enumeration and not really in their deficiency in learning number string. Also their memory deficiency seems to determine the above phenomenon.
Some of them, of course not all, could also continue enumeration task from the number that they stopped. According to our research children with Down syndrome cannot continue counting from the last number and start over again because of their Short-term Memory deficit. The early intervention designed for their memory development could be proved to be of major importance to their entire cognitive development.
Hi Garyfalia,
I think your study sounds interesting and look forward to reading about your intervention and the findings of its success. The phenomena you describe, difficulty counting on from a given number is also found in typically developing children of a similar age and those who are experiencing some difficulties in numeracy. It is a numeracy skill that often requires explicit instruction, modelling and repetition with variety, all of which are key teaching strategies for individuals with DS, learning difficulties and learning disabilities including intellectual disability. A key learning strength in individuals with DS is their visual ability and so interventions in teaching specific skills such as counting on from a given number will be more effective when concrete objects and visual resources are used to aid teaching and learning.
You might be interested to contact the organisation mentioned below. This organisation has recently been doing a lot of research, intervention and development of resources in the field of early numeracy that might be relevant to your own work.
Down Syndrome Education International
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