Down Syndrome

Help for individuals with Down syndrome

As a parent of a child with Down syndrome and a speech-language pathologist, I have had the opportunity to help my daughter develop speech, say words and sentences, and learn to read and spell. Each new level of development has challenged me to do my very best to provide a learning environment to meet the needs of my child in a way that makes learning accessible, allowing her to develop skills and always move forward on her learning curve. It is with pleasure that I share with you what I have learned, by sharing the learning methods and materials that work best for individuals with Down syndrome. It is also with a sense of urgency that I present these materials, as our children will only be in the educational system for a defined period of time, and we need to make every hour, day and year count! Children with Down syndrome can and do learn many, many skills, and they learn best when goals are practiced in a way that makes sense to them.

"Speech and language skills are an area of particular difficulty for most children and adolescents with Down syndrome. … Spoken language skills are usually delayed relative to the children"s non-verbal ability and this suggests a profile of specific language impairment." Sue Buckley (2000) Speech and language development for individuals with Down syndrome – An overview.
The learning profile of people with Down syndrome indicates that they have particular difficulty learning to speak, due to various factors such as a high incidence of hearing loss, poor verbal short-term memory, and other physical differences. However the good news is that many people with Down syndrome have a relative strength in visual short-term memory. They can use visual information to help process and remember information. Using visual information to support learning is not only a good idea, it is often an essential piece of the learning puzzle for people with Down syndrome. Other ways we can support learning are by using music, and tactile resources such as objects, and cards.

When working with people with Down syndrome, we should make achievable goals based on our observations of the child"s current level of functioning, and then provide as much support as necessary to help them achieve those goals. We need to break complex tasks such as speaking into manageable chunks, providing steps to learning, making each goal explicit and easy to achieve. We then build, one step at a time, upon previous skills.
All the materials, kits and resources on the Learning Language Together website are key tools for developing your child's speaking, reading and spelling potential.