Permissive parenting mediates parental stress and child emotions in families of children with Down syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Parenting styles mediate parental stress and child emotions in families of typically developing (TD) children. Our main aim was to study these relations in families of children with Down syndrome (DS), who in past research reported increased parental stress and permissive parenting. METHOD: Our sample included 100 parents of children with DS and 72 parents of TD children age 4-12 years. Parents completed online surveys of parental adjustment and emotion regulation (ER), parenting styles, and child ER and mood. RESULTS: Parents of children with DS reported more distress and permissive parenting than parents of TD children. Within parents of children with DS, there was an indirect effect of parental stress on child emotions through permissive parenting. This effect was partly conditional upon parental ER and positive adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: Results have implications for distressed parents of children with DS whose families may benefit from improved coping strategies and increased support.

Addressing phonological memory in language therapy with clients who have Down syndrome: Perspectives of speech-language pathologists.

BACKGROUND: Phonological memory (PM) plays a significant role in language development but is impaired in individuals with Down syndrome (DS). Without formal recommendations on how to address PM limitations in clients with DS, it is possible speech-language pathologists (SLPs) find ways to do so in their practices. AIMS: This study asked if and how SLPs address PM in language therapy with clients who have DS. It also asked about SLPs' opinions of the importance, practicality and difficulty of addressing PM in clients with DS. METHODS & PROCEDURES: SLPs participated in an online survey that asked if they address PM in clients with DS and, if so, how often and with which techniques. The survey also asked SLPs to rate their opinions of addressing PM in clients with DS with Likert scales. To contrast clients with DS, SLPs were asked about their practices and opinions with clients who have specific language impairment (SLI) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). SLPs were recruited through e-mails sent from state organizations and researchers. To compare SLPs' practices and opinions across client types, frequency analyses and analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were run. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: In all, 290 SLPs from 28 states completed the survey. Nearly all SLPs were currently practising at the time data were collected, and all worked with at least one of the three client types. Findings indicated SLPs less often addressed PM and used less variety when addressing PM with clients who have DS compared with clients who have SLI or ASD. Further, SLPs considered it less important, less practical and more difficult to address PM in clients who have DS when compared with clients who have SLI, whereas a similar pattern was found with clients who have ASD. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: SLPs' opinions could be one reason they under-address PM with clients who have DS. Other reasons include there are no evidence-based practice (EBP) guidelines on this topic, and there is not enough familiarity with the DS phenotype among SLPs. Future research on ways to address PM in clients with DS successfully are essential so that EBP guidelines can be established and language therapy can be made more effective.

Personality traits predict attitudes toward individuals with intellectual disability.

Background: Explaining individual differences in people's attitudes toward individuals with intellectual disability (ID) is important for increasing social inclusion of people with ID. The aim of the current study was to replicate and extend past research by formulating a single model of attitudes toward individuals with ID with several predictors: personality traits, quality and quantity of contact, perceived knowledge of ID, social desirability, and demographics. Methods: A sample of 221 undergraduate students in the United States completed several surveys in a lab setting: the Mental Retardation Attitude Inventory-Revised, the Big Five Inventory, McManus et al.'s measures of contact with and perceived knowledge of ID, and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Results: Results replicated previous findings by showing quality of contact was the strongest predictor of attitudes. Additionally, we found openness to experience and agreeableness remained significant predictors after holding all other variables constant. A follow-up mediation analysis demonstrated that quality of contact mediated the relations from openness and agreeableness to attitudes. Conclusions: Findings suggest personality factors can influence attitudes toward individuals with ID, and further emphasize the importance of quality of contact. Implications for the social inclusion of individuals with ID are discussed.

Modeling the Relations Among Sustained Attention, Short-Term Memory, and Language in Down Syndrome.

Sustained attention (SA) and short-term memory (STM) contribute to language function in Down syndrome (DS). We proposed models in which relations of SA to language in DS are mediated by STM. Thirty-seven youth with DS aged 10-22 years (M = 15.59) completed SA, STM, and language tasks. Cross-sectional mediation analyses were run with the bootstrapping method. We found significant indirect effects of SA separately on vocabulary and syntax through auditory STM with point estimates of -.30 and -.31, respectively. Results suggest lapses in SA compromise auditory STM, which in turn impacts vocabulary and syntax in youth with DS; however, further research is needed to confirm causality. Addressing SA and STM in language therapy with youth with DS could lead to improved outcomes.

Growth and Decline in Language and Phonological Memory Over Two Years Among Adolescents With Down Syndrome.

Forty-two adolescents with Down syndrome (DS) ages 10 to 21 years completed a battery of language and phonological memory measures twice, 2 years apart. Individual differences were highly stable across two years. Receptive vocabulary scores improved, there was no change in receptive or expressive grammar scores, and nonword repetition scores declined. Digit memory and expressive vocabulary scores improved among younger adolescents, but generally held steady among older adolescents. These patterns may reveal key points in development at which interventions may be best applied. Further research is needed to understand specific processes in tasks that appear to be slowing or declining during adolescence. They may be important for understanding early aging and dementia in DS.

Auditory and visual sustained attention in Down syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Sustained attention (SA) is important to task performance and development of higher functions. It emerges as a separable component of attention during preschool and shows incremental improvements during this stage of development. AIMS: The current study investigated if auditory and visual SA match developmental level or are particular challenges for youth with DS. Further, we sought to determine if there were modality effects in SA that could predict those seen in short-term memory (STM). METHODS AND PROCEDURES: We compared youth with DS to typically developing youth matched for nonverbal mental age and receptive vocabulary. Groups completed auditory and visual sustained attention to response tests (SARTs) and STM tasks. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Results indicated groups performed similarly on both SARTs, even over varying cognitive ability. Further, within groups participants performed similarly on auditory and visual SARTs, thus SA could not predict modality effects in STM. However, SA did generally predict a significant portion of unique variance in groups' STM. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Ultimately, results suggested both auditory and visual SA match developmental level in DS. Further, SA generally predicts STM, though SA does not necessarily predict the pattern of poor auditory relative to visual STM characteristic of DS.