Learning the hard way: Avoidance strategies in young children with Down syndrome

This paper overviews findings from a series of studies of cognitive development in children with Down syndrome aged between birth and 5 years. These studies provide evidence of the persistence and elaboration of a particularly inefficient learning `style' during these early years, one which affects both the acquisition and consolidation phases of learning. The ability levels demonstrated at very young ages were surprisingly high but instead of building on these skills, many children simply allowed them to deteriorate. Consolidation of new skills was compromised by poorly motivated performance on `easy' tasks while the avoidance strategies produced in response to `difficult' tasks resulted in many learning opportunities being missed. Implications of these findings are discussed and in relation to assessment, the importance of awareness of the inherent instability in developmental processes in children with Down syndrome is stressed.