Integrating a Mediated Learning Experience with Karlstad-model: A Longitudinal Study on a One-Year-Old Child with Down Syndrome

The study intends to raise a discussion regarding the question of whether a Mediated Learning Experience (MLE) can be considered applicable to children younger than two years with Down Syndrome (DS), to stimulate their cognitive abilities. In fact, currently MLE approach is used mainly for children of at least two years of age. The longitudinal study has been conducted for six months with a one-year-old child with DS (named T.) between 12 and 18-months of age. Sessions of video recording was conducted each week, videotaping the boy and his mother interacting in different object permanence and cause-effect activities. The article presents first a discussion about similar characteristics that can be identified between MLE and the Karlstad-model, an established approach used regularly in Norway to enhance the communication abilities of children with DS already from the first months. Then, the research presents and discusses how simple activities used also to introduce the Karlstad-model for enhancing child’s communication ability can be used to support specific cognitive functions. The study raises interest about the possibility of defining activities suitable for an MLE approach with focus on children younger than two years of age with DS. The results obtained are not generalizable but provide a starting point for discussion that opens up to possible qualitative and quantitative subsequent studies carried out on larger populations.