Social interactions of preschool children with Down syndrome during extracurricular activities

The aim of this research was to identify the process of social interaction of children with Down Syndrome (DS) during extracurricular activities in the regular early childhood education in Ribeirao Preto-SP, Brazil. Six children aged 3-6 years participated in this study. There were two recordings of each child in situations of social interaction during extracurricular activities, and analyzed by 15 behaviors, divided into two categories of social skills: interpersonal and self-expression. The results demonstrate that, in the interpersonal skill category, the higher occurrence was the behavior "occurs interaction with other children". In the selfexpression skills category, only the behaviors "smiles" and "imitates other children" have significant occurrence. The behaviors more frequently identified in this study permit to understand that the school environment is a facilitator for the interaction of child with DS with the typical developmental children, allowing him/her to develop the expected social skills.