BENDI: Improving Cognitive Assessments in Toddlers and Children with Down Syndrome Using Stealth Assessment.

Cognitive assessment is a fundamental step in diagnosing intellectual and developmental disabilities, designing interventions, and evaluating their impact. However, developed and developing countries have different access to tools designed for these purposes. Our goal was to develop a battery for cognitive assessment mediated by digital technology that allows the exploration of cognitive domains (inhibitory control, attention, motor ability, and context memory) in children with Down Syndrome (DS) in Chile.

Study of a set of reading precursors among Chilean children with Down syndrome.

Learning to read for children with Down syndrome is relevant because of the impact this ability has on learning and the development of autonomy. Previous research has described reading development in this population, but it is not clear if the process and precursors are the same in a transparent language like Spanish. This study explores performance in a set of precursors (phonological awareness, visual recognition, vocabulary, letter knowledge and verbal reasoning) in 42 children with Down syndrome between 6:0 and 10:11 years.

PaísDI: Feasibility and effectiveness of an advocacy program for adults with intellectual disability and their stakeholders' groups in Chile.

Background: People with intellectual disability in Chile face individual and collective barriers to social participation. Lack of knowledge about their rights and tools for effective self-advocacy seem to be key elements that need to be improved to facilitate participation.

Method: We present PaísDI, a 16 h long manualised program created by self-advocates in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team, with four modules: rights and intellectual disability, leadership in intellectual disability, effective communication and financial considerations of social projects.