Including Children with Down Syndrome in Early Childhood Care and Education Settings

INTRODUCTION

Every educator/carer wants to do their utmost to meet the needs of children in their care during the early childhood years – a crucial time in any child’s life. The information included in this publication has been written to support you in your professional role of facilitating the development of a young child with Down syndrome.

The unknown can be frightening. This is true even for parents when their baby is born, but the apprehension quickly dwindles once you get to know the child and are armed with the appropriate information. This booklet has been designed to give you some basic information about Down syndrome and to offer you practical ideas for integrating a child with this syndrome into your group. The information presented here is based on common traits of children with Down syndrome, but of course all children are different. As always, your best resources are the parents of the child, the two who know their son/daughter best.

Is Integration a Good Idea?

This is a common question and deserves to be addressed. Many parents are now choosing to “mainstream” their children because of growing research findings on the benefits of integration.

We now know that the child with Down syndrome can gain significantly from the language and social skills they observe in their typically-developing peers. They flourish with exposure to the rich language and play experiences they witness around them. We also know that the other children, too, benefit from having a child with special needs as a peer.

They develop their nurturing skills while learning not to smother and, most importantly, they learn to accept differences by this early exposure. From the caregiver’s perspective, children with Down syndrome are usually not “difficult” and tend to be popular members of their class.

Overview of Down Syndrome

Down syndrome is a chromosomal disorder that a child is born with and has for life. The term ‘syndrome’ indicates a set of recognisable clinical features which may be present at birth. Some children may have vision or hearing difficulties, motor impairments and medical conditions like a heart defect or bowel problems, but all of these conditions are treatable. Some children will be more challenged to learn, while others will appear to be more like their typically-developing peers than they are different. People with Down syndrome often have recognisable facial features which have nothing to do with their level of cognitive functioning. The most important thing to understand is that this is a child first - a child who has the same needs as all other children. Early intervention is given for medical problems in combination with therapies - occupational therapy to help with strength, use of hands and independence skills; physiotherapy to help with motor skills; and speech and language therapy to help with communication skills. As individual as children are, there are certain traits that tend to be evident in most children with Down syndrome. The following section will detail the learning profile of a child with Down syndrome and Section 3 will offer some ideas for integration, based on the learning profile, which you may find helpful.

Conclusion

You will probably find that having a child with Down syndrome in your class is a positive experience for everyone concerned. As a professional childcare provider, you know the great rewards of seeing young children blossom in front of your eyes; this is indeed one of the many perks of the job. This feeling can be multiplied tenfold when you have a child with Down syndrome in your care. The feeling of success is sweeter for the child, the parents, peers and teachers. Share in this feeling…. Share the journey.

Source:
http://scholar.google.com.uy/scholar_url?url=https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ewa_Pisula/publication/41421128_Parenting_stress_and_coping_styles_in_mothers_and_fathers_of_pre-school_children_with_autism_and_Down_syndrome._Journal_of_Intellectual_Disability_Research_54_266-280/links/542304a70cf26120b7a6b8fa.pdf&hl=es&sa=X&scisig=AAGBfm2nWcYcpmKptZLh6uTEkg1MLSrecg&nossl=1&oi=scholarr&ved=0ahUKEwj4xeC1uYLNAhXMWx4KHU6sB4kQgAMIDSgBMAA