Abstract

FREIRE, Rosália Carmen de Lima; DUARTE, Nietsnie de Souza  and  HAZIN, Izabel. Neuropsychology phenotype of children with Down syndrome. Psicol. rev. (Belo Horizonte) [online]. 2012, vol.18, n.3, pp. 354-372. ISSN 1677-1168.

Down syndrome (DS) is the most common genetic cause of intellectual disability, affecting approximately one for every 800 live births. The presence of extra chromosome 21 (or critical regions of it) associated with this syndrome, and the resultant change in gene dosage, is responsible for many structural and functional abnormalities in the nervous system of these children, which can be evidenced by psychomotor developmental delay commonly observed. Changes in the areas of language and memory are accentuated and end up hindering the learning process. On the other hand, visuospatial skills are seen as strengths of these children. The aspects mentioned above constitute a pattern of changes and skills characteristic of DS called neuropsychological phenotype. In this paper, we will presents a literature review of research that has been developed on the neuropsychological aspects of DS, and that has contributed to characterize the neuropsychological phenotype of children with this syndrome, allowing interventions that focus on areas of potential and minimize areas of weakness.

Keywords : Down syndrome; Neuropsychological phenotype; Neuropsychological evaluation; Intervention.

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