Improvingworkingmemoryabilitiesinindividualswithdownsyndrome:Atreatmentcasestudy hiwetmariamcosta1

Abstract

Working memory (WM) skills of individuals with Down’s syndrome (DS) tend to be very poor compared to typically developing children of similar mental age. In particular, research has found that in individuals with DSvisuo-spatialWMisbetterpreservedthanverbalWM.Thisstudyinvestigatedwhetheritispossibletotrainshort-termmemory(STM)andWMabilitiesinindividualswithDS.Thecasesoftwoteenagechildrenarereported:EH,17yearsand3months,andAS,15yearsand11months.Aschool-basedtreatmenttargetingvisuo-spatialWMwasgiventoEHandASforsixweeks.Bothpriortoandafterthetreatment,theycompletedasetofassessmentstomeasureWMabilitiesandtheirperformancewas compared with younger typically developing non-verbal mental age controls. The results showed that the trained participants improved the irperformance in some of the trained and non-trained WMtasksproposed, especially with regard to the tasksassessingvisuo-spatialWM abilities.These finding sared is cussed on the basis of the irtheoretical, educational, and clinical implications.