Down's syndrome

Down's Syndrome is a chromosomal condition that usually causes a child to have some degree of learning disability, delayed development as well as having physical features that are associated with the condition.

Children with Down's Syndrome may experience difficulty or delay with their speech, language and communication skills at home or at school.

Our Speech and Language Therapists can help to reduce such difficulties by providing an assessment of skills and abilities and producing a therapy programme that is individual to your child

Down's Syndrome is a genetic condition that is the result of an extra chromosome. It affects a child’s development and usually causes children to have some level of learning disability.

In England there are approximately 60,000 people with Down's Syndrome. In the United Kingdom it is estimated that 750 children a year are born with Down's Syndrome and that in every 1,000 children who are born there is one child with Down's Syndrome.

Children with Down's Syndrome generally follow a certain profile for speech, language and communication difficulties. Research suggests that children with Down's Syndrome have stronger receptive language skills than expressive language skills. Speech intelligibility generally being the greatest area of need. Children are individual and therefore the difficulties they present with vary in severity and do not have to comply with the general profile.

Difficulties include:

• Small attention period.
• Poor judgment.
• Impulsive behavior.
• Delayed learning skills.
• Delayed receptive and expressive language development.
• Difficulty with syntax.
• Speech difficulties due to physical attributes of the oral cavity, tongue and palate.
• Delayed speech development.
• Increased chances of hearing loss.
• Difficulties with social communication.

Speech, language and communication skills are essential to the development of many cognitive abilities such as reasoning, recalling, thinking and social interaction. They are also vital for everyday life around school and home life. The impact of such difficulties can have a great effect on the development of a child with Down's Syndrome. Some difficulties children may experience on an everyday basis include:

• Difficulties making friendships.
• Difficulty expressing their thoughts and feelings due to unintelligible speech.
• Difficulty being understood by others.
• Difficulties with developing literacy skills.
• Difficulties accessing the curriculum.

Such difficulties can impact upon a child’s general development and well-being. Our Speech and Language Therapists can help to decrease the level of difficulty by providing a therapy programme that is unique to the difficulties your child is experiencing.

An assessment of a child’s speech, language and communication skills will be carried out by our Speech and Language Therapists to see how it affects your child’s development and interaction abilities. The assessments chosen by our Speech and Language Therapist will vary on what it assesses according the abilities and needs of your child. There are both formal and informal assessments available these will be selected according to the abilities of your child.

Assessments available include:

• Expressive language assessments.
• Receptive language assessments.
• Speech sound assessments.
• Social communication assessments.
• Eating, drinking and swallowing assessments.
• Assessment for access and use of AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication), this could by using an IPAD to speak or support speech clarity.

Speech and language therapy can be beneficial to children with Down's Syndrome as it can increase a child’s development across several areas. Our Speech and Language Therapists can assess your child’s needs and provide a therapy programme that is distinctive to your child’s speech, language and communication difficulties. Our Speech and Language Therapists will include your child’s motivation as well as yours, your child’s and their school's priorities and goals.

A child with Down's Syndrome may be able to understand more than they are able to express. Our Speech and Language Therapists can help to increase their ability to express what they are feeling by increasing their vocabulary and developing a language programme that works on their expressive language and syntax skills. Our Speech and Language Therapists can also work on increasing your child’s intelligibility to enable them to express more of their thoughts and feelings and to be understood while doing this.

Therapy we provide include:

• Receptive language programmes.
• Expressive language programmes.
• Speech sound development.
• Social communication programmes.
• Eating, drinking and swallowing advice.
• Group therapy.
• Individual therapy.
• Support, training and advice for parents, carers, schools and other professionals.
• Implementation and training of AAC where appropriate.

Our Speech and language therapists can help to increase the quality of life for children with Down's Syndrome by increasing their communication skills using a therapy programme that is developed to work towards their goals.