Helping Children with Down Syndrome to Learn
Down Syndrome (DS) is a genetic condition in which a person is born with an extra chromosome. affecting how their body and brain develop. In the majority of cases, this is not an inherited condition but occurs by chance during conception. Around one in every thousand babies currently born in the UK will have DS and there are around 40,000 people in the UK with the condition. Interestingly, more babies with DS are born to younger women, although the chance of having a baby with DS is greater for older mothers. The average life expectancy for a person with DS is between fifty and sixty, with a few living into their seventies.
People with DS will have a learning disability and the majority require additional support at school. DS affects a person’s ability to learn but does not mean that they can’t learn. It is vital that adults understand the specific learning profile associated with DS and ways to support the child or young person. Gillian Bird, Training Services Manager at the Down’s Syndrome Association (add link) outlines methods that support success for DS learners. These include:
Setting up and scaffolding situations for learning by imitation
Daily practice of targeted skills built into engaging class activities
Planned activities that become part of the child’s routine
Support for positive behaviour and for friendships
Adaptations that use learning strengths and support areas of difficulty
The typical learning profile of a child with DS, including strengths and challenges, is described below.
Learning Needs
Children with DS typically have specific strength in visual-spatial learning as well as for learning by imitation and they can readily learn skills that play to these strengths, such as reading, visual arts and the use of ICT. Alongside these, they often have difficulty with auditory short-term memory and auditory working memory which can affect their ability to maintain attention and learn in situations which need listening and attention skills such as listening to a story, assemblies, whole class discussions and recalling and following long instructions. Visual supports are effective in helping children with DS maintain attention, as well as activities that allow them to copy others.
Sensory Needs
Every child with DS has a visual problem, even if they don’t require glasses. Their sight typical lacks fine detail and sharp contrast and print and other visual materials used in the classroom may need to be enlarged and made bolder. The majority of children also experience hearing loss, most often conductive loss resulting from glue ear but it can also be sensorineural loss. It is vital to treat this early as we know that conductive hearing loss in the early years has a far greater impact on the speech and language development of children with DS than it does for other children.
Speech, Language and Communication Needs
Children with DS often demonstrate impairments in speech and language, although these can vary significantly between individuals. The development of language in children with DS is impacted by hearing impairment and learning difficulties including verbal processing difficulties associated with verbal short term memory. Additionally, children with DS typically find it hard to distinguish and manipulate small units of sound. They often show strength in receptive vocabulary which can lead to high expectations for concept learning, even though children with DS often have more advanced vocabulary than grammatical knowledge. Signs and gestures can support them to learn new vocabulary, and visual scaffolds such as photos and pictures can support language learning.
While all children understand language before they can use it, this is more pronounced for children with DS which can lead to their understanding and other abilities being underestimated. They often experience a range of difficulties that affect their speech clarity and fluency and they are likely to find it difficult to express their thoughts and feelings. Adults should give them additional time to process and respond to information. Activities to support the full range of speech, language and communication needs that individual children experience should be directed by a speech and language therapist.
Gross and Fine Motor Skills
Children with DS typically show a specific delay in developing gross motor skills in their early years but improve their motor skills considerably during their primary school years. They have more flexible ligaments than other children, which presents additional challenges. Most will need continued support for writing and recording their work. They may perform precise movements more slowly than others and adults should encourage active movement and participation in PE.
Social Inclusion
As a result of their delayed development, some children with DS may need additional behaviour support in their early years, and adults will need to promote social inclusion and the development of social skills. Many children with DS are socially motivated and they learn well from following and copying other children, but they might need extra help to learn how to interact and play during break and playtimes, particularly as speech and language delay can make it more difficult for them to ask to join in or understand the rules of the game. Adults must make sure that they support without reducing opportunities for the child to interact with others and to make friends.
Working Together
Its really important that everyone supporting a child with DS is ‘on the same page’. The school should ensure that all staff have basic training in DS and that regular communication with parents is prioritised and maintained. Adults may need advice from them about how best to support the child’s needs and a home-school book can be a great way to communicate daily news, successes and issues arising
More information about Down Syndrome can be found on the website of the Down Syndrome Association.
