Does Your Child Have Down’s Syndrome?
Our Expert Speech & Language Therapists Provide Evidence Based, Quality Therapy To Help Children With Down’s Syndrome
Some Facts About Down’s Syndrome
Down’s Syndrome occurs when someone is born with an extra chromosome. This typically happens by chance and not as the result of any actions anyone has taken prior to or during pregnancy.
People with Down’s Syndrome will have a level of learning disability, though this is different for everyone. A learning disability does not mean a person cannot learn, though does affect how they learn and their ability to learn.
Some people with Down’s Syndrome will be more independent and access employment, and others may benefit from more regular care and support.
For every 1000 babies born in the UK, one will have Down’s Syndrome.
Down’s Syndrome is not a disease or illness to be ‘cured’. However, therapies such as Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy can support people with Down’s Syndrome to reach their full potential.
Children with Down’s Syndrome Can Struggle With:
Reaching developmental milestones at the same rate as their peers.
Acquiring language; particularly spoken language, which often develops at a slower rate than language understanding. This means that typically children with Down’s Syndrome can understand a lot more than they can say.
Having generally better social and interaction skills than are reflected in their language skills. This can make it difficult to engage in social situations, particularly those which are dependent on using language.
Building up their vocabulary, particularly in infancy (though this generally improves with age, and can become a relative strength).
Using grammar correctly, particularly in teenage years.
Difficulty with auditory short-term memory – which can make it difficult to learn new words. However, generally children with Down’s Syndrome have a particularly strong visual memory.
Their speech being understood by others. Many factors can contribute to unclear or less clear speech for children with Down’s Syndrome.
Children with Down’s Syndrome and Communication Skills
Here are some of the ways that good speech and language therapy can help children with Down’s Syndrome and their families:
Supporting the child to develop their use and understanding of language.
Teaching the team around the child strategies to support language and other learning.
Supporting vocabulary development.
Supporting the child to use grammar and longer sentences.
Working with the child to develop their ability to be understood via speech, and/ or other methods.
Signposting families to appropriate and reliable sources of information and support.
Tips For Parents on How to Support Children with Down’s Syndrome
Children with Down’s Syndrome generally have strong visual skills. When communicating with your child, support your language with visual cues as much as possible - for example, use pictures, objects, Sign or gestures, pointing, facial expressions, and so on.
If you’d like to learn some basic Signs to use with your child, watching ‘Something Special’ (Mr Tumble) on CBeebies is a great place to start – watch the programme together and practice your Signs!
Copy sounds, words and signs back to your child when they attempt to communicate. Always model the correct pronunciation/ word/ sign even if your child has made a slight error in theirs, but don’t make your child copy you.
Be enthusiastic! Using lots of praise, expressive intonation and exaggerated facial expressions will support your child to be engaged in communicating with you.
Be responsive to any attempts your child makes to communicate – remembering that this might look like different behaviours as well as sounds, words and gestures.
Repetition is key! When we learn new words we need to hear them lots of times in context to understand their meaning. Try choosing one key word per day to focus on and repeat it lots of times.
How Our Speech Therapy Can Help Children and Young People With Down’s Syndrome
We assess each child’s needs holistically and design our treatment plans around the unique needs of each child. At the centre of everything we do are the goals, aspirations and expectations of the child and their family.
Here are some of the many evidence-based therapy approaches and frameworks we are specially trained to use to help children with Down’s Syndrome develop their communication skills:
BSL, Makaton and Signalong Sign Language
Intensive Interaction
Colourful Semantics and Shape Coding
Elklan
Word Aware
Reading and Language Intervention for children with Down Syndrome
Working with children with Down Syndrome, Symbol UK
Total Communication and AAC
Caroline Bowen speech sound disorders and childhood apraxia of speech
How can we help you and your child?
If you’re interested in how our expert speech and language therapy can help your child with Down’s Syndrome, click below to request a free telephone consultation with one of our therapists or to book an initial assessment appointment. We will assess your child’s strengths and needs and design a therapy package to suit your child’s unique learning style, and your budget. We can also support children and young people in the over one hundred schools that commission our schools speech and language therapy service.
