The effectiveness of intervention program on short-term memory in down syndrome

Abstract

Individuals with Down syndrome or Trisomy 21 are individuals who have an extra chromosome on the 21st pair. It is one of the most common genetic causes of severe intellectual disability (ID). They are known to have significant deficits in short-term memory. They need to be taught repetitively in order for them to finally grasp the information. This reflects a limited capability in their memory span. Short-term memory (STM) is a short-term storage of information that holds both verbal and visual information that eventually will shift them to the working memory. The objective of this study is to determine the effectiveness of intervention program by looking at the rankings of verbal short-term memory and visuo-spatial short-term memory scores before and after the intervention in experimental and control groups. This intervention was tested using quasi- experimental design on 40 Down syndrome children and adolescent aged between 6-14 years in 5 primary schools for 8 weeks. A cognitive- based measurement of working memory called the Automated Working Memory Assessment (AWMA) was used to measure the level of short- term memory in children and adolescents with DS before and after intervention. The treatment group showed positive significant changes in all Verbal Short-Term Memory subtests and all Visuo-Spatial Short-Term Memory subtests after the intervention.