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TWO‐PLATED TAPPING PERFORMANCE BY DOWN'S SYNDROME AND NON‐DOWN'S SYNDROME RETARDATES
Author(s) -
Seyfort B.,
Spreen O.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1979.tb00520.x
Subject(s) - frith , tapping , down syndrome , psychology , audiology , finger tapping , developmental psychology , physical medicine and rehabilitation , medicine , psychiatry , philosophy , linguistics , management , economics
SUMMARY Down's syndrome adolescents were compared with age‐ and I.Q.‐matched non‐Down's syndrome retardates on a two‐point finger tapping task. No difference was demonstrated in overall tapping rate between the two groups over a 60‐sec trial, however, Down's syndrome subjects made significantly more errors as measured by same‐plate tapping. Further, a significant correlation was found between rate of tapping and failure to alternate from one plate to the other in the Down's syndrome, but not in the non‐Down's syndrome group. These rates were interpreted as supportive of a hypothesis put forward by Frith and Frith (1974) which suggested that Down's syndrome retardates show a deficit in developing and utilizing preprogrammed motor sequences.