Journal of Intellectual Disability - Diagnosis and Treatment

1-6

Authors: Wenn B. Lawson, Brynn A. Dombroski

Poor Theory of Mind (ToM) (or difficulties imputing mental states to self and others) [1], (See also [2-5]) is often blamed for certain responses and behaviour in autism. However, the Theory of Mind Task Battery requires an understanding of language, the use of cognitive skills, as well as the child’s motivation and attention to complete. All of these factors are either weak or under-developed in individuals with autism suggesting that this is not the best means to measure one’s understanding that other people have their own thoughts, plans, beliefs, or point of view. Behaviours like strong defiance, insistence on sameness, fear associated with sudden change and severe anxiety may be related to difficulties seeing beyond the ‘now’ [6]. This paper suggests that some of the stress and anxiety in the autism population may actually be due to delayed object permanence (OP) (knowing something may still exist even if it is out of sight), which can appear as poor ToM. This delay in establishing OP is governed by single focused attention. For more information on this concept see: Lawson, W. (2011) The passionate mind, JKP:London. Although ToM and OP are defined differently, this paper aims to show the relationship between them and how one concept can influence the other using examples in everyday life to illustrate how poor OP is associated with single focused attention, which detracts from the bigger picture.

18-23

Authors: Claudia Condoluci, Manuela Galli, Veronica Cimolin, Chiara Rigoldi, Giorgio Albertini

Down Syndrome (DS) has a significant impact on the development of many tissues, most notably in the heart and in the brain. According to the clinical need to better investigate these aspects, the main aim of this study was to make an overview on the cardiac features in adult individuals with DS. The following data of 37 individuals with DS (range: 18-60 years) were collected and analysed: age, gender, height, weight, waist to height ratio (WHER), smoking history and cardiac parameters (heart rate and blood pressure), blood glucose level or glycaemia, cholesterol (total, high-density lipoprotein – HDL - and low-density lipoprotein - LDL - cholesterol) and triglycerides. In addition, their gait pattern were quantified with 3D Gait Analysis. BMI, WHER and cholesterol HDL results were above the upper limits of the recommended range in people with DS; on the contrary, blood pressure, heart rate, glycaemia, cholesterol-LDL and triglycerides were within the recommended range. Comparing males and females in the DS group, the females showed statistically different values for cholesterol-total, and triglycerides values, with lower values in comparison to males. In motor performance, people with DS presented abnormal gait patterns. Some significant correlations were found: age with LDL, WHER with weight and BMI, systolic with diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol with LDL and triglycerides. Our results showed that adults with DS suffer from a high prevalence of physical disorders, including overweight and obesity, and abnormal cholesterol values, together with abnormal gait pattern.