| Sumario: | Object retrieval skills requiring means‐end exploration are an area of relative weakness in young children with Down syndrome (DS). The current pilot study examined the object retrieval skills of a small sample of young children with DS for tasks with varying level of complexity. Thirteen children with DS (31.55 ± 4.14 months) and 13 mental age‐matched typically developing (TD) children (17.31 ± 1.64 months) completed three tasks involving retrieving a toy from a transparent box (Task 1), an opaque box (Task 2) and a transparent box hidden inside an opaque box (Task 3). Both DS and TD group performed similarly for the simpler Task 1, but for Tasks 2 and 3, the DS group had a lower success rate, less frequent use of complex asymmetric hand actions and/or longer execution times compared to the TD group. Future studies should examine the developmental trends and specificity of means‐end exploratory behaviours in children with DS.
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