View clinical trials related to Down Syndrome.
Filter by:Objective: To investigate the interaction effects of vitamin D supplementation and aerobic exercises on balance control and physical performance in children with Down syndrome (DS). Methods: Forty-five children with DS ranging in age from 8 to 12 years will be selected and will participate in this study. They will be assigned randomly using sealed envelopes into three equal groups (A, B and C). Group A will consist of 15 children and will receive the conventional physical therapy program (CPTP) only. Group B will consist of 15 children and will receive the CPTP plus the aerobic exercises. Group C also will consist of 15 children and will receive the CPTP, the aerobic exercises and Vitamin D supplementation in the form of an oral dose of vitamin D3 1000 IU (Cholecalciferol). The program of treatment will be 3 days/week for 12 weeks. Evaluation of balance by using the biodex balance system and physical performance by using the six-minute walk test (6MWT) will be conducted at baseline and after 12 weeks of the treatment program.
This study involves the collection ocular lens tissue from individuals with Down syndrome and age-matched controls at the time of cataract surgery.
This will be a prospective validation study of a sample of consecutive pediatric Down syndrome patients who are seen through the weekly Down syndrome clinic at OHSU/Doernbecher's. Questionnaires will be administered to approximately 5 new patients per month. Since this population has a higher prevalence of OSA than the general pediatric population, and OSA is a potentially modifiable determinant of quality of life, validated instruments are critical in assessing disease burden and response to treatment.
This study uses mobile eye-tracking technology in order to characterize patterns of visual attention to communication supports, as well as a partner, within real world interactions for individuals with Down syndrome. Visual communication supports are central components of what is termed augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention. AAC refers to the methods and technology designed to supplement spoken communication for people with limited speech. "Aided" AAC is a subcategory in which an external aid stores and presents for use visual symbols such as photographs, line drawings, or alphabet letters. The most traditional means of structuring aided AAC displays is to present the language concepts within row-column grids, which contain individual symbols/concepts placed in each grid square. The investigator's previous work investigated whether these grid-based presentations could be improved by understanding how different perceptual features of the displays influence responding (i.e., whether what the display looks like influences how easily the information on it is found). Individuals with developmental disabilities and children developing typically were faster and more accurate in finding information on some displays over others, when tested using a "visual search" task (aka, a "finding game" - "find the dog"). The previous investigations have evaluated visual attention within a setting that isolated visual processing of the AAC display as the primary dependent measure. However, communication requires attention not only to an AAC display, but also to a communication partner. Therefore, the current study seeks to examine questions of visual attention to both an AAC display and a communication partner. The investigators will manipulate characteristics of the structure of the display (e.g., arrangement of symbols), in order to determine if more optimal displays facilitate desirable patterns of visual attention to both the communication display and the partner. The mobile eye-tracking technology captures attention to both the display and the communication partner. The investigators anticipate that participants will be able to attend to their partner and the shared activity more when the AAC display is more optimal, but that when the AAC display is sub-optimal, the participants will have to spend more time examining the AAC display and less time in actual communication.
This study wants to determine the relationship between spontaneous hand gestures, stuttering and intelligibility in individuals with Down syndrome. One third of these individuals has fluency problems, such as stuttering. Gesture use appears to be a strength in individuals with Down syndrome. While they are able to compensate for their language problems, it is not clear if they also use gestures to compensate for their speech problems. Therefore, this study will observe the impact of their gesture use on the stuttering frequency/severity and on the intelligibility of children with Down syndrome. This study has three research questions. The first question is: Is there a difference in gesture use between individuals with Down syndrome who stutter and individuals with Down syndrome who do not stutter? The hypothesis is that the children who stutter will make more gestures to compensate for the fluency problems. The kind of spontaneous hand gestures will also be considered. These results will be compared to those of typical developing individuals. The second research question is: Are stuttering events that are accompanied by a gesture more intelligible than stuttering moments that are not accompanied by a gesture? Research showed that the use of signs has an positive impact on the speech intelligibility of individuals with Down syndrome. Here it is investigated if this is also true for spontaneous hand gestures. In case of better speech intelligibility it is investigated if the gain in intelligibility is caused by how recognizable the gesture is or by the effect of the gestures on speech itself. The effect of different types on the speech intelligibility of the stuttering events will also be investigated. Typically developing individuals who stutter will function as control group. The third research question is: 'Does gestural priming have an influence on the fluency of children with Down syndrome? Gestural priming is a secondary speech signal that gives feedback to the first speech signal by simultaneously mimicking the first speech signal. In this research a hand puppet will imitate the mouth movements of the participants. Next to that, the speech will be simultaneously be accompanied by beat gestures, meaningless up and downward movements. The hypothesis is that due to mirror neurons, the participants will become more fluent. Mirror neurons are neurons in the brain that can produce a neural basis for fluency by the perception of the second speech signal.
In France, as in many countries of the world, trisomy 21 or Down syndrome (DS) is the subject of an antenatal screening based on a risk calculation (R) including the assay of biochemical markers in the maternal blood, and the measurement of a fetal ultrasound parameter (nuchal translucency). In the population of pregnant women said to be at high risk (R> 1/250), confirmation of the diagnosis of DS is made by invasive sampling (trophoblast biopsy or amniocentesis), which allows the establishment of fetal karyotype. In addition to limited sensitivity (80 to 85% depending on the techniques), this screening is an anxiety factor (8% false positives), and miscarriages of euploid fetuses (normal karyotype) in 1% of cases (procedures invasive). The plasma of a pregnant woman contains a mixture of free DNA of maternal (90%) and fetal origin (cffDNA for cell free fetal DNA) (about 10%, but this proportion increases in cases of fetal trisomy 21. The proportion of cffDNA is sufficient to qualitatively and quantitatively study specific genetic markers of a pair of chromosomes. It is therefore possible to evaluate the quantity of markers chromosome of interest relative to a reference chromosome marker, and to calculate a marker / marker ratio of interest, theoretically identical for all autosomes (chromosomes 1 to 22) during euploid pregnancy. In case of fetal aneuploidy (for example, trisomy 21), this ratio is unbalanced for the chromosomal pair involved. Advances in technology, such as high-throughput mass sequencing (MPS) and digital PCR (dPCR), now make it possible to consider the diagnosis of fetal maternal DS through the study of cffDNA. Several teams have already published on this subject with the MPS technique, applied directly to free DNA from maternal plasma, or after a cffDNA isolation step. This involves sequencing the DNA fragments present in the sample and placing them back on their original chromosome. In case of trisomy 21 fetal, one seeks to put in evidence of an excess of sequences from chromosome 21. These techniques require expensive equipment (sequencer, bioinformatic platform, servers) and a technical time and important analysis (often several days for a single run). Concerning the research of aneuploidies by digital PCR (dPCR), few publications are today due to the absence of sufficiently powerful instruments until recently. DPCR is less expensive.
This study will be conducted to investigate and compare the effects of Cognitive Orientation to Daily Occupational Performance (CO-OP) and Conductive Education (CE) on fine motor skills, activity, and participation limitations in children with DS. Children with DS aged 7-18 years will be included. Both CO-OP and CE interventions will last 12 weeks and be conducted for 2 sessions per week in the cross-over randomized study. Following 12-week wash-out period, interventions will be changed for each group.
The objective of this study is to compare the effect of two strategies to increase MVPA in adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD): a single level intervention delivered to the adolescent only, and a multi-level intervention delivered to both the adolescent and a parent .
Background: Children with Down syndrome (DS) present with hypotonia, impaired balance and poor gross motor proficiency which lead to difficulty learning new motor skills, decreased engagement in physical activity, and limited participation in home, school, and community activities. Bicycle riding is a popular childhood activity with multiple health benefits; however, children with DS often have difficulty learning to ride a standard two-wheel bike. Purpose: The purpose of this pilot study is to determine the effectiveness of the Strider "Learn to Ride" intervention when used to teach children with DS to ride a two-wheel balance bike. Additional purposes include examining the immediate effects of the five-day "Learn to Ride" intervention on the balance of children with DS and the long-term effects of completion of the intervention on the participation and physical activity levels of children with DS. Methods: An estimated 10 children between the ages of 5 and 17 years old will be recruited to participate in this pre- post-test group design study. The participants will complete the five-day Strider "Learn to Ride" intervention under the instruction of a pediatric physical therapist. The immediate effects of the intervention on distance cycled and balance, using the Pediatric Balance Scale (PBS), will be assessed. Participation and physical activity levels will be assessed at long term follow-up using the Participation and Environment Measure for Children and Youth (PEM-CY) and a PROMIS physical activity questionnaire.
The goal of this study is to determine whether JASPER (Joint Attention, Symbolic Play, Engagement, Regulation), which is an intensive, targeted early behavioral intervention focused on a developmentally based approach for teaching joint engagement, joint attention, and play skills can improve behavioral / emotional regulation, social communication skills, and developmental trajectories in Down syndrome (DS). The investigators will also explore the potential use of EEG and event-related potentials (ERP) as outcome measures, as this approach may help elucidate mechanisms of change in behavior and development, and may help explain differences in development of social communication skills in individuals with DS. EEG and ERP measure may also help to predict treatment outcome.