A preliminary study of intervention addressing early developing requesting behaviours in young infants with Down syndrome

Abstract

Infants with Down syndrome display characteristic deficits in early communicative behaviours, including requesting. This deficit significantly and negatively impacts later communication and cognitive development. In this study, we explored intervention to address requesting in young infants with Down syndrome. Two infants with Down syndrome were taught increasingly sophisticated forms of early requesting skills (i.e., gaze shifting and gaze shifting paired with vocalisation). One of the infants was also taught a verbal approximation of the word "more". The application of interventions to address and prevent impairments characteristic of the behavioural phenotype demonstrated by infants and children with Down syndrome is discussed.