This text started from the observation of a false motor debility in Downs where it exists mental retardation not referable to previous risk factors outside the chromosomal anomaly. Such motor debility always improves, in a short time (within 3-6 months), following a drug therapy that acts on modulation of stress reactions. Excluding the hypothesis of a vicarious substitution by other brain areas, the only possible explanation is that we are dealing with a dysfunctionality of the cells of the brain motor areas, with the result of a false debility by reduced functionality. Such false motor debility does not necessarily justify the whole motor trouble, to which can contribute other components (vestibular, cerebellar, visual and other ones) but it seems the motor equivalent of the false mental debility. As such, it may be suspected in all people with mental retardation and motor debility without any evident motor lesions.
Posted on November 15th, 2007 by Renato Cocchi
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As seen in people with developmental disabilities, interpersonal communications often differ from those of their “normal” counterparts, and it has been reported that children with Down’s syndrome typically have difficulties interacting with peers (Guralnick, 2002). However, much of the research on language and communications in people with Down’s syndrome have focussed on young people, especially youth and children. Very few studies have focussed on communications in adults with Down’s syndrome, thus, a case study involving an observation of an adult with Down’s syndrome in a group home setting was performed to investigate interpersonal communication skills and/or deficits in people with Down’ syndrome, compare the ways in which they communicate with others (i.e. caregivers, teachers, social workers, other people with Down’s syndrome and other developmental disabilities, etc.) and problems associated with communications and/or inappropriate communications. Some of the findings will be compared with those from the current literature. It is expected that the way in the subject communicates with others will differ, depending on whom they are interacting with and the context. It is also expected that some setting are more likely to promote inappropriate responses in communication than others.
Posted on November 14th, 2007 by Alvenh Channe
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In this second chapter I will deal with bilingualism as a situation experienced by children with Down syndrome. The analysis aims at demonstrating that the double exposure of a child to two different languages is not only a prerogative of typically developing children but also, surely with some slight differences worthy to be mentioned, a situation lived in several families with a trisomic child. As I am perfectly aware of the controversy surrounding bilingual education even when typically developing children are concerned, and in order to give as much up-to-date-information as possible about the cases of trisomic children, I will first describe the most diffuse and significant views about the commonly feared difficulties or even damages often thought to be a consequence of bilingualism in young children. Secondly, aiming at giving the specific cases of children with Down syndrome a scientific point of view, I contacted some of the most known experts in speech and language pathologies and experts about Trisomy 21 to appreciate their opinion about the possibility of raising trisomic children as bilinguals.
Posted on November 13th, 2007 by Valentina Tommasi
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I am a home-schooling mom. We are a home-schooling family. Even now, mid way through year number two of this journey those words still get hitched in my throat when I profess it. “Why?” you ask. As you may know, home-schooling is very common nowadays and especially in the state of Washington, where by some accounts, there are upwards of 20,000 students learning at home. Washington’s also one of the first states in the nation to legally support home-schooling (or home-learning as I like to call it), so what’s the big deal if we add two more to their numbers?
Posted on November 8th, 2007 by Riverbend Down Syndrome Parent Support Group
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Michael Berube Blog. When Jamie entered kindergarten nine years ago, my wife Janet and I worried that he wouldn’t be ready. Our concerns were not unusual-but Jamie was: he would be the only child with Down syndrome in Westview Elementary. He was assigned a paraprofessional and “pullout” sessions for occupational and speech therapy: standard fare, these days, for “special needs” children of all kinds. But at the age of six, Jamie wasn’t very verbal, and we had no idea how he’d adjust to a real classroom after four years of child care.
Posted on November 8th, 2007 by Michael Berube
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PUNS (Prioritization of Urgency of Need for Services) is a legislatively mandated database of all people with developmental disabilities in Illinois, of any age, who have unmet needs for services now or in the next 5 years. It is imperative that every single person with a developmental disability at any age stands up to be counted with PUNS.
Posted on November 8th, 2007 by Michele Westmaas
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