ENVIRONMENTAL AND TEMPERAMENT ASSESSMENTS OF CHILDREN WITH DOWNS-SYNDROME

This study was designed to investigate the family environment and the temperament of children with Down's syndrome (DS). Parents of 40 child ren with DS completed the Family Environmental Scale (FES). They also were asked to fill out the Temperament Assessment Battery for Children (TABC) for both the child with DS and the nearest same-sex sibling. A similar questionnaire of the TABC (teacher form) was sent to the chil dren's teachers. The results of these investigations revealed that the re were high scores in categories cohesion, expressiveness, achievemen t, moral/religious emphasis, organization and control on the FES, indi cating that family members in the study cohort are relationship orient ed, provide support for one another, emphasize ethical values and are able to express their feelings. Comparing TABC results between childre n with DS with their siblings, significant differences were observed i n such categories as adaptability, approach/withdrawal and persistence . Control children were scoring higher in the adaptability and persist ence categories, whereas children with DS achieved significantly highe r scores than the control children in the approach/withdrawal category .