Desempenho ocupacional de crianças com síndrome de down atendidas em uma clínica escola

Abstract

The Down syndrome is comprehended as a genetic condition in which the person will present, during his development, restricted characteristics to this syndrome, presenting delayed motor functions of the body and/or mind, due to the presence of an extra chromosome in his genetic. Some characteristics present in the development of these people can directly affect the independence of the activities of daily living due to the late reach of some motor and cognitive milestones. Therefore, the aim of this work is to evaluate the occupational performance of children with Down Syndrome, and to identify which occupation areas can be affected. It is a cross-temporal, descriptive and exploratory study using a sample of children aged between 3-7, who were participating in the extension project “Letramento em pauta: intervenção fonoaudiológica em sujeitos com Síndrome de Down” of phonoaudiology course at Federal University of Paraíba. As a data collection tool, we used a datasheet with sociodemographic data of the mothers and children participating in the research and the evaluation of the Occupational Performance through the Canadian Measure of Occupational Performance.Of the 10 children who participated in the research, 8 (80%) were male, 7 (70%) were between 3 and 5 years old, 9 (90%) attended regular school. As for teaching, 8 (80%) attended private school. As for maternal age and schooling, 6 (60%) aged between 40 and 49 years and 50% of them had completed higher education. As for the monthly income, (40%) received between 2 and 5 minimum wages. Concerning occupations reported with difficulty of accomplishment, the most cited were the use of the toilet (40%), feeding (30%) and wear (20%). This study concludes that children with Down Syndrome can present relevant delays in their occupational performance, mainly in self-care activities, prevailing the use of toilet, feeding and clothing, in the socialization activities, especially in speech issues, and in the school activities, most of them in written language and consequently in fine motor coordination.