STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SENSORIMOTOR DEVELOPMENT AMONG DOWN'S SYNDROME INFANTS

Abstract

The structural features of sensorimotor intelligence were examined among two groups of Down's syndrome infants administered the seven Uzgiris and Hunt scales of infant psychological development. Two measures of associative relationships (stage congruence and intercorrelations) among the subjects' performances on these scales were subjected to both hierarchical cluster analysis and factor analysis to discern the underlying structure of the data. The analyses yielded between two and four clustering networks of behaviours for each sample of infants. Moreover, the clustering and factor solutions for both samples were quite alike. Comparisons of the findings with those in other investigations showed that both Down's syndrome groups manifested patterns of organization very similar to structural networks for more heterogeneously formed groups of mentally retarded subjects. The need for better designed comparative studies is noted.