Development of Size Judgement Ability among Down Syndrome and Normal Children.

Many tests which attempt to produce intelligence quotient or mental age scores for children rely on time taken to complete the task for a valid result to be obtained. A number of tests were carried out with both Down's Syndrome and normal children (128 Down's Syndrome; 162 normal) in order to determine (1) relative abilities to complete the tasks according to chronological age and mental age (2) time taken to complete the tasks. The results indicate that there is no relationship in cognitive and perceptual tasks between ability and time taken in Down's Syndrome children, though in normal children there is a clear relationship. It is therefore suggested that time is not a dimension which can be usefully employed in determining intellectual levels of Down's Syndrome children. It is further suggested that the reasons might be more related to personality and temperamental differences than cognitive and perceptual abilities. (Author)