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It appeared that the normal children made heroic but unsuccessful attempts to establish contact with DS children but eventually give up, with the result that the DS child becomes an isolate in the group--interacting with none except the adult helpers. (Author/SB)

Down's children remained in social and geographical isolation, whereas spontaneous play immediately followed the introduction of a normal child. There was little or no eye contact between the Down's children and their siblings and no mutual gaze between the normal siblings as they played. (SB)

The article focuses on studies of colour and shape discrimination in children diagnosed as suffering from Down's Syndrome or from some other condition involving severe subnormality. In these studies Down's Syndrome children were shown to be deficient in short-term memory for colour information. the task was one of successive discrimination: a stimulus card was displayed against a white background for a period of ten seconds and then removed and replaced by an array of six similar cards varying in background colour and in colour and/or form of a super-imposed shape.

The article discusses a paper focusing on the nature of the color retention deficit in Down's syndrome. In previous studies the authors observed a deficit in short-term retention of color information in a group of eighty-four Down's syndrome children, no similar deficit was observable in a control group not diagnosed as suffering from Down's syndrome but matched for MA and CA, or in retention of shape information. Munsell colors were employed of equal value and chroma and care was taken to ensure that all subjects were tested in good daylight conditions.