Farnoush Khosravi; minoo kalantari; Marzieh Pashmdarfard; Hamidreza Rostami; Alireza Akbarzadeh Baghban; Faezeh Heidari Beni
Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available Online from 22 April 2024
Abstract
Background: Active participation in school is an effective way to develop children's cognitive and social development. Children with Down syndrome (DS) confront various problems in ...
Read More
Background: Active participation in school is an effective way to develop children's cognitive and social development. Children with Down syndrome (DS) confront various problems in the school environment due to different impairments in body functions and structures.
Methods: This study aimed to clarify the nature of performance of children with DS in the school environment in Isfahan, Iran. In this cross-sectional study, a convenient sample of 51 children with DS was recruited from five schools for exceptional children and their normally developing peers recruited from four regular schools in Isfahan, Iran. Parents and teachers completed the demographic information questionnaire, and only teachers completed the School Function Assessment (SFA).
Results: Children with DS had a moderate level of participation (criterion score = 60.04). The children's school function scores were significantly lower than the criterion scores of normally developing peers. There was no significant relationship between gender, age, and educational level with school function scores in children with DS (p>0.05).
Conclusion: School functions of children with DS was significantly different with their normally developing peers. Children with DS are significantly better in physical performance than in cognitive-behavioral functions. The weakest cognitive-behavioral functions requiring particular rehabilitation interventions are task behavior/completion and safety.
