Аннотация:Down syndrome patients development delay can be further compromised by associated situations as hypothyroidism, severe congenital heart disease or hospitalizations.Previous development evaluations of Down syndrome children have not taken these factors in consideration or that there are sex differences in the timing of acquisition of some abilities.As no scale was applied recently for Brazilian Down syndrome patients, we applied the Behavior Development Scale (PINTO, VILANOVA AND VIEIRA, 1997), validated for Brazilian children, to 60 Down syndrome patients under one year old, distributed by sex and in 2 groups according to associated factors.No difference in development was detected between children with or without associated factors, probably due to the fact that all children had had early diagnosis and management.Down syndrome boys showed greater delay then girls for abilities of Spontaneous Communicative Axial Behavior (sound emission and word repetition) and Spontaneous Non-Communicative Apendicular Behavior (fine motor coordination).
