Ese Stacey’s involvement with Down syndrome issues came about after her second child Hannah was born with the condition in 2005.

Since then Ese and her husband Simon have worked tirelessly to help change the health and lives of Down syndrome children.

As parents who were both doctors, they have sought out knowledge about the treatments that would make the biggest impact.

Indeed, Ese started a pilot study of five children with Down syndrome at Seaford, East Sussex, looking at nutritional markers and their possible influence on brain development. After analysing this and other research, she formulated a nutritional toolkit made up of talks and written material to help parents and carers make good nutrition choices for their children.

As volunteers, Ese and Simon joined with other parents of Down syndrome children and helped establish the Seaford Down Syndrome and Special Needs Support Group charity.

Ese and Simon are particularly keen on intervention work and supporting Down syndrome science and the professionals working around the condition. Like other members of the charity, they freely give their time to make a difference by providing the best range of specialist services for children and adults living with Down syndrome.

Ese’s background

Born on 26 September 1966, Ese is a consultant specialist in sport and exercise medicine with a particular expertise in the use of food as a means of improving people’s lives.

She is one of four children born in Sheffield, to Nigerian parents Chief Gilbert Oshevire and Esther (née Unuajohwofia), and the youngest fostered daughter of Marina and Douglas White, an English working class mining family in Chesterfield, Derbyshire.

As a child, Stacey lived through the 1984-85 miners’ strike. She was educated at Chesterfield St Helena’s School, also known as Chesterfield Girls’ Grammar School. An accomplished athlete, Stacey set the British university heptathlon record in 1989. The following year she was voted University of London Sportswoman of the Year. She competed in women’s rugby as a winger, including as a member of the England emerging team between 1996 and 1997, and Wasp ladies as both a player and doctor. Ese later worked as doctor for England women’s rugby and ran the London marathon in 2003.

She studied at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School, London, from 1985 to 1990. Having a keen interest in alternative ways of looking at health and healing, she trained in homeopathy at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital, now known as the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine, in 1996, where she gained an MSc in sport medicine and is now a member of the British society of integrative medicine (BSEM) with a desire to combine knowledge of how environment and nutrition influence health.

While she was a medical student, Ese took part in a BBC TV documentary, Doctors To Be. It was a 20-year project that included The GP’s Tale, featuring qualified doctors Will Liddell and Stacey.

She is a foundation fellow of the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine and was put on its specialist register as a consultant in 2009 and the medical register (L’Ordre des Médecins) in Bouches du Rhône, France, in 2014. A year later she gained a distinction in a postgraduate diploma in MSK ultrasound at the University of Bournemouth.

Her interest in food and nutrition draws on experiences from both parts of her Nigerian and English upbringing.

Other Facts

• From October 1995 to September 1996 she was a masters student studying sports medicine in the department of Sport and Exercise Medicine at the Royal London Hospital, Mile End, London.
• She did research into bone and bone turnover in female endurance athletes at Imperial College’s School of Medicine at St Mary’s, Paddington, London, between September 1996 and March 1997.
• Between April 1997 and January 1998, Stacey was a Fellow in sports medicine at the Sydney Children’s Hospital Institute of Sports Medicine (CHISM), Sydney, Australia.
• From July 2004 to 2010 she worked privately as a sport and exercise medicine doctor in London and Eastbourne. She was a senior lecturer in sports medicine in the department of Sport and Exercise Medicine at The Royal London Hospital, Mile End, London, from May 2002 to July 2004.
• At the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014, Stacey was a volunteer doctor and treated athletes from all over the world, including triathletes. She has held other International Triathlon Union posts.
• Ese has a keen interest in education, and has at various stages home-educated her three children. She also ran a successful education company called MRCGPEXAM, which taught general practitioner’s how to pass their postgraduate exam.
• She is an established author, having written both medical and non-medical books. Her medical series Hot Topics in general practice was regularly in the British Medical Journal’s bestseller book list.
• Ese enjoyed further expanding her knowledge of food and culture while living in Provence, France, for five years between 2009 and 2014. It was an adventure that helped her children learn French, and, while in Provence, she wrote a maths programme, entitled ‘VIP maths’ – which stands for Visual, Intuitive, Progressive. It aims to take children on a step-by-step fun journey through maths and was written in response to the dearth of simple intuitive maths material. The programme will be published in July 2017.
• Stacey’s analysis of current literature into Down syndrome led to her discovery that the gut is a vitally important organ in general health. She also found that not just Down syndrome children could benefit from greater knowledge and work on gut health but most people with chronic disease. Stacey gives talks about health and has set up an educational website offering an online health course for the general public. The programme followed students through their careers and continued for 20 years.
• From July 2012 to the present, Stacey has been a BUPA specialist sport and exercise physician.
• Currently she deals with complex health problems that relate to musculoskeletal and general health. She has built up expertise in explaining how the gut, which she says is arguably the body’s most important immune organ, can affect all aspects of health. Stacey speaks at conferences regarding the gut and its effects on joint problems.

Stacey is married to Dr Simon Gareth Stacey, an anaesthetist and nephew of the late Vivienne Stacey, who pioneered Christian missionary work to Muslim women living in Pakistan and was the author of more than 15 books, including several in the Urdu language. Ese and Simon live in Brighton, Sussex.

For improving the health of children with DS

Previously the DSDT ran an 8 month series of workshops on improving nutrition for children with Down syndrome, it proved a great success.

Parents reported significant improvements in a number of areas of their child’s wellbeing, with small changes to diet.

Online webinars coming soon.

Training Kit

The training during the webinars provides parents with a HEALTH TOOLKIT for supporting children with DS.
The kit includes advice and guidance to help chart and improve your child’s diet to optimise their health and learning.

The workshops are run by Dr Ese Stacey MBBS MRCGP MSc FFSEM (UK) of The Hannah Trust.

You can read Dr Ese Stacey Biography here.

Look out for further workshop dates here or on FaceBook.

A study, conducted by researchers at Down Syndrome Education International and published today in the American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, suggests that adaptive working memory training might offer sustained benefits for young people with Down syndrome.

Areas covered:

• Cogmed JM Working Memory Training – example activities
• Visuospatial short term memory scores (Automated Working Memory Assessment), initial intervention group (A) and initial waiting comparison group (B) at baseline, pre- and post-interventions and follow up for group A.

The findings from a randomised controlled trial of Cogmed Working Memory Training*, conducted by researchers   at Down Syndrome Education International, are published today in the American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental   Disabilities.[1] The study was led by Dr Stephanie Bennett (now at the University of Portsmouth, UK) working   in collaboration with Dr Joni Holmes (MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge)   and Professor Sue Buckley OBE, Director of Science and Research at Down Syndrome   Education International. The study was funded by The Baily Thomas Charitable   Fund and Down Syndrome Education International. Cogmed JM software was provided   for use in the trial by Pearson Education, Inc.*

Background

People with Down syndrome tend to be more limited in in their abilities to store and manipulate information over   short periods of time (short term and working memory) than other people. Past research has found that people with Down syndrome have more   limited short term memory capacity than typically developing people of the same age. Research has also found that people   with Down syndrome experience relatively more difficulty storing and retrieving verbal information than they do with storing   and retrieving visual information.[2]

These memory systems impact many areas of learning, including the acquisition of vocabulary, grammar and reading skills.   Improving short term and working memory function might therefore be expected to have important consequences for educational outcomes.

Past studies of memory training for young people with Down syndrome have used visual (picture) and verbal rehearsal techniques.   They suggest that memory function can be improved through training, but have not provided evidence that these improvements   can be sustained after training ceases.[3]

Studies published in recent years suggest that computerised adaptive working memory training  may lead to important improvements in memory function for children with relatively   limited working memory skills and that these improvements may be sustained beyond the initial   training period.[4,5] DSE therefore set out to explore if similar results might   be achieved for children with Down syndrome.

The study

We conducted a randomised controlled trial of Cogmed JM – the version of the software designed for typically developing   pre-school children. We recruited 25 children living in South East England, aged between 7 and 12 years at the start of   the study, and 21 completed the trial.

The children were randomly assigned to an initial intervention group (A) and a waiting comparison group (B). Children   in group A received the intervention first while children in group B received no specific memory training intervention –    providing a comparison against which the effects of the training program could be judged. Subsequently, the children in   group B also received the intervention.

The Cogmed JM program includes seven computerised training activities, presented as engaging games – for example, moving   bumper cars that light up one at a time, the sequence of which the child has to remember for a short time and confirm by   clicking on the cars in the correct order.

The intervention was delivered in the children’s schools where the software was installed and training provided to Teaching   Assistants and Special Educational Needs Coordinators. The children received the intervention over a period of 10 to 12   weeks during which they completed 25 training session, each of which generally included three of the seven activities. Every   week one new activity was introduced and one previous activity removed from the three trained to maintain interest.

The children were assessed at the start of the study (t1), after the first group (A) received the intervention and the   comparison group (B) waited (t2), and then again after the comparison group (B) had received the intervention and the initial   intervention group had discontinued training for (t3). These assessments included computer-based tasks that were distinct   from the tasks practiced during the Cogmed JM training sessions (selected from the Automated Working Memory Assessment).

Results

The children in the initial intervention group (A) achieved important gains on the non-trained assessments of visuospatial   short term memory and visuospatial working memory, while the comparison group made little or no gains on these measures.   The relative improvement on the visuospatial short term memory test reached statistical significance, suggesting it is not   a chance finding. Among the children in the intervention group, 60% achieved improved scores on the test of visuospatial   short term memory after training and 40% made no gain or performed less well. Among children in the comparison group, 27%   achieved improved scores over the same period without training, while 73% made no gain or performed less well. However,   we did not find clear evidence of gains on verbal short term memory or verbal working memory measures.

When the waiting comparison group (B) subsequently received the intervention, similar gains on the test of visual short   term memory were observed, though the effect on visual working memory was not as clear. Interestingly, this group made a   noticeable gain on the verbal short term memory measure, but it is not clear that this was an intervention effect – the   initial intervention group also made a noticeable gain on the verbal short term memory measure at this time (having discontinued   the intervention).

Encouragingly, when reassessed four months after completing the training the initial intervention group maintained the gains observed on the visuospatial   short term memory and visuospatial working memory assessments.

The study also explored the effects of the intervention on measures of attention and behaviour. Full details are available   in the published paper.[1]

Implications

This study suggests that adaptive working memory training could be a practical and useful intervention for children with   Down syndrome. However, further research is required to confirm this. Future research is needed to explore if memory training   can deliver improvements in verbal as well as visuospatial memory, and (importantly) if these gains subsequently lead to   improvements in language, literacy and wider academic skills.

Larger controlled trials that examine longer term effects on wider academic outcomes will be required to assess if intensive   adaptive working memory training is a useful therapy for young people with Down syndrome.

DSE  is planning studies to further explore the possible benefits of adaptive working memory training and is   seeking funds to continue this work.

Supporting educational research

DSE improves early intervention and education for young people with Down syndrome through original scientific research and practical, evidence-based publications, training and consulting services. Our teaching resources, guidance and information services help over 150,000 people in over 160 countries each year.

You can support DSE’s work to improve early intervention and education for young people with Down syndrome by donating to Down Syndrome Education International (a charity, based in England) or by donating to Down Syndrome Education USA (a US-based  501(c)(3) nonprofit).

References

1. Bennett S, Holmes J and Buckley S (2013). Computerized memory training leads to sustained improvement in visuospatial short term memory skills in children with Down syndrome. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 118(3), 179-192. https://dx.doi.org/10.1352/1944-7558-118.3.179
2. Jarrold C, Nadel L and Vicari S (2008) Memory and neuropsychology in Down syndrome. Down Syndrome Research and Practice. https://www.down-syndrome.org/reviews/2068/
3. Connors FA, Rosenquist SJ, Arnett L, Moore MS and Hume LE (2008). Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 52(3), 244-255. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2788.2007.01015.x
4. Holmes J, Gathercole SE and Dunning DL (2009). Adaptive training leads to sustained enhancement of poor working memory in children, Developmental Science, 12, F9-F15. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00848.x
5. Holmes J, Gathercole SE, Place M, Dunning DL, Hilton KA and Elliott JG (2010). Working memory deficits can be overcome: Impacts of training and medication on working memory in children with ADHD, Applied Cognitive     Psychology. 24, 827-836. https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/acp.1589

Trademarks

* Cogmed and Cogmed Working Memory Training are trademarks, in the USA and/or other countries, of Pearson  Education, Inc. or its affiliate(s).

This page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 UK: England & Wales License. You are free to to copy, distribute and display the content of this page, provided that you credit the author (Down Syndrome Education International) and that you provide a link  to this original version (https://www.dseinternational.org/en-gb/news/2013/06/04/memory-training-study-down-syndrome/). For any reuse or distribution, you must also make clear to others these licence terms. You can easily comply with these conditions by keeping this notice in place on all copies. Find out more about  copyright and permissions.

Tuck provide in-depth sleep product reviews. Their primary mission is promoting sleep health awareness, and most recently, products that may help people with down syndrome deal with common disorders like sleep apnea, insomnia, and other issues that can cause shorter and more fragmented sleep.

Visit the link here: https://www.tuck.com/

This leaflet describes how calendars can provide a visual representation of time so you can see timescales like three months, five weeks, six days: they show information that can be difficult to ‘know’ when you hear the words.

Generally we use calendars to back up information that we speak about- we say ‘see you next Tuesday’ and maybe write it on the calendar to make sure we remember the arrangement. This approach uses the calendar to show timescales, and overcome difficulties in using language to talk about timescales.

We suggest thinking about setting up a calendar for children/young people who show an interest in when events will happen, maybe talking about birthdays or outings or film releases, and have awareness of days of the week and months of the year. Maybe get started around the time your child is in keystage 2?

In this approach it’s helpful to use the calendar like a diary that you carry with you and refer to and turn the pages when talking about dates and events, rather than hanging it on the wall.

What we do

1. Use a month to view calendar, with weeks in rows and days of the week in columns.

This makes it possible to see weeks, months, and to check out what happens on particular days by looking down the columns.

You can also use templates on programmes like ‘word’ to prepare month to view calendars starting on any month of any year, so you don’t have to wait until the Autumn when calendars come into the shops. (In Word: file>new>templates>calendar wizard. After working through the calendar wizard, you will need to change the font size and include gridlines in the table).

 Personalised calendars can increase the young person’s motivation to get to grips with the challenge of learning to use the calendar. Buying a calendar that relates to the individual’s interests can help to make the calendar interesting- but beware of the pictures taking over (we found a Harry Potter calendar with a ‘too scary’ picture of Voldemort that meant we couldn’t look at the November page). Or make up a calendar that reflects the young person’s interests and styles: use colour, fonts, maybe add pictures.

 Calendars that sometimes have the last days of the month in the top row (so all the days of the month can fit into five rather than 6 rows) can be confusing.

2. Write important events on the calendar e.g. family and friend’s birthdays, Christmas, Bonfire Night, pancake day, holiday in Spain, half term.

 You could use written words and/or small drawings (e.g. birthday cake with written name) and/or stickers.

Write events on the squares for the day when they happen, rather than using arrows to block out periods of time e.g. write ‘half term’ on each weekday of half term, or ‘caravan in New Forest’ on each day that the young person will be there.

3. Use the grids on the calendar to look together at the time difference between two points on the calendar.

Talking about timescales can be confusing because the language changes all the time: for example, Q. ‘how long is it till my birthday?’  A. it’s not for a while yet, it’s in three months… six weeks till your birthday… 12 days and then it’ll be your birthday… you just had it, it’s not your birthday again till next year… This can be confusing!

The calendar shows that the date of the event (e.g. birthday) stays the same, and ‘today’ is the reference point that changes.

One square= 1 day

One row of squares, or part row of squares= 1 week

One page, or part of one page= 1 month.

We focus on approximate timescales that relate to the calendar- for example, we count months in terms of the number of pages we turn. So if ‘today’ is late April, and we’re checking out how long it is till school trip at the beginning of June, we would say ‘it’s two months till school trip’, because we turn two pages to get to it, although technically it’s only a month and a bit.

4. The first step is always to locate TODAY, before you locate the date of the event you are talking about.

First find the page for the month. I ask ‘what month is it?’ and we say/sign the month. Then we find it on the calendar: starting with January, turn the pages and name each month until we get to this month.

Next find the day. I ask, ‘what day is it?’ and we say/sign the month. Then we name the days across the first row of the calendar grid, naming each day until we get to today’s day of the week.

Then find the date. I read out the dates for this day of the week during this month and point to the squares e.g. is it the second?  is it the ninth? is it the sixteenth? is it the twentythird?

It’s helpful to refer to the date written down, if you can find it on the whiteboard or the young person’s mobile.

 Check and/or teach knowledge of the days of the week and months of the year, and awareness of numbers to at least 20, as needed to use the calendar.

 Calendars can be successfully used in this way by people who don’t count all the way to 31.

 Don’t worry about teaching ‘ordinal’ numbers like (first, second, third, fourth…. twenty seventh), but use these when you speak about dates. Young people often start out talking about ‘Tuesday one February’ and ‘twentyeight May’ and later learn to say ‘first’ and ‘twenty eighth’ from hearing other people. 

5. The next step is to locate the date of the important event (which you have already marked on the calendar).

First check out together, did it happen before or is it going to happen?

If it’s going to happen, then you need to search forward from today.

If it happened before, then you need to search back from today.

Look through the calendar together until you find the event. (You don’t need to read off the date of the event unless the young person is interested to do so). 

6. Check and describe the timescale between today and the event.

Ask the young person to point to today with one hand, and find (point to) the date of the event with the other hand.  Give hand over hand support to achieve this.

Then count the days, weeks or months (as appropriate to the timescale) between today and the event. The young person will probably take their fingers off the squares you have found together, so you will need to help with this.

We use:

• a pointing index finger to count and indicate days (squares on the calendar)
• pointing index finger on each hand starting together and moving apart to count and indicate weeks (a row of squares on the calendar)
• a flat hand making small circular movement to indicate months (a page on the calendar).

It’s helpful to count both days and weeks, or both weeks and months so that the young person learns how these timescales relate to each other, e.g. it’s three weeks till you birthday, how many days? It’s seventeen days till your birthday.

7. Use set words and phrases to simplify the language learning

 These lists identify words and phrases that may be easiest to learn first and equip you to talk about timescales without including more tricky concepts, we suggest you avoid using them when you get started and leave them to learn later.

8. Set up next year’s calendar before the end of the year

 You’ll need to get the next calendar set up several months before it starts, so that you can talk about future events together. The young person may carry two calendars for a while (like this years diary and next year’s diary), or might keep the calendars in a filofax-style system where you can add and remove pages.

Secondary schools might consider including month to view calendar pages in school planners.
Notes you might attach to the calendar

 When you use the calendar, always start of by finding ‘today’.

1. Turn to the correct month
2. Find the column for the day of the week
3. Look down the column for that day to find the correct date.
4. Say the date: today is (Monday the 20^th of September). Point to the writing on the calendar for the day, date and month.

Always write on new information with the pupil, so that they see you add the recording or write it themselves. Draw pics or add stickers for words that are difficult to read e.g. you might put a star sticker next to ‘auditions for school show’.

After you write anything on, then check timescale relative to today: that’s in three months (turn the pages to count); that’s in two weeks (move and count down two rows on the page to count).

 If there are changes to dates, then show the pupil how to change the recording e.g. say, the date of our party has changed. It was on 14^th Dec. Let’s cross that out. It’s on 16^th Dec instead. Let’s find 16^th Dec. Let’s write on, ‘Christmas party at youth club’.

 Write on regular events like swimming lessons, but also write on when these are not scheduled to happen on their usual day. E.g. if swimming lessons take place most Tuesdays but there is no swimming lesson on Tuesday 8^th May, then write ‘no swimming lesson’ on that date. The calendar shows school dates, add in ‘back to school’ and ‘last day of school’ on planned dates for pupil (e.g. if holiday dates overlap with termtime).

Write on birthdays, including the pupil’s birthday, choosing friends birthdays to include, and family birthdays if the pupil wants to include these.

 Notice and write on ‘last’ days, as well as ‘first’ days. E.g. if you write ‘Josie goes on holiday’ on the first day that Josie will be absent, then write ‘say goodbye to Josie’ on the last day that the pupil will see her.

Add any date-related information that is important to the pupil e.g. If the pupil is excited about a new film coming out and finds out what date it will be released to cinemas, then write that date on ‘Harry Potter 7 film release’, or if pupil is a big fan of Zac Efron and checks out his date of birth, then include ‘Zac Efron’s birthday’ (it’s on 18^th Oct).

Teaching language to talk about calendar time

First-next-then

Use ’first-next’then’ to talk about key steps, that are important to the young person, in very familiar, unchanging routines e.g. at break time: first you eat your snack, next you can play a game, and then you pack up and go to your next lesson

 Days of the week

Draw up a chart identifying a key event that usually happens on each day of the week

e.g. Monday- swimming, Tuesday-Janie goes to Brownies, Wednesday-mum goes to work, Thursday- cooking in food tech, Friday- fish and chips for tea, Saturday- drama club, Sunday- no school no clubs

If there are some days that don’t have routines associated with them, you might need to set up a routine for that day e.g. Tuesday- tidy your locker, Friday- phone Tom at Uni.

If a ‘usual’ event doesn’t happen on the usual day, then you just explain this e.g. It’s Tuesday. Janie usually goes to Brownies on Tuesday. She’s not going to Brownies this week because we’re going to visit grandma in hospital.

You could make up a book or poster or powerpoint presentation with the young person showing their days of the week routine and practice this.

Alongside this, practice reciting (speech and/or sign) the days of the week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Months of the year

Learn the days of the week and make sure the young person is really secure with these, before working on months of the year.

Use the same process as for learning about days of the week.

e.g. January- back to school, February-Valentines Day, March- Joe’s birthday, April- Sophie’s birthday, May- summer half term, June- your birthday and mummy’s birthday, July- say goodbye to your old class, August- no school, September- start your new class, October- Halloween, November- Bonfire night, December- Christmas.

Happened before/going to happen

Collect together pictures/leaflets about upcoming events and put them in a ‘going to happen’ file or box e.g. party invitations, leaflet for farm to visit on school trip, brochure for your holiday destination, copy of poster for school show. Sit down together once a week or so, and talk about all the things that are ‘going to happen’. You can use the sign and symbol for ‘going to’, as visual supports.

Set up a different file or journal or scrapbook to record things that ‘happened before’, and move your pictures/leaflet into this after the events happen. You can add more souvenirs collected at the event e.g. postcard from holiday destination with one page from the brochure, photo of your child in costume to go with the poster for the school show. Move the items across, and talk about things that ‘happened before’ at your chat-and-review sessions. You can use the sign and symbol for ‘past’ as visual support. You might include some writing about the event.

© Symbol UK Ltd 2011

Understanding sensory processing issues for pupils with Down Syndrome

Keys to supporting behaviour and learning

Pupils with Down syndrome often exhibit difficulties with taking in, integrating and making use of sensory information. These fundamental functions of the nervous system enable us to interact with our environment and other people, to learn new skills, and to get on with everyday life. Behaviours and responses that are initially puzzling, can be addressed when the contribution of sensory processing is understood. This training day for professionals and parents supporting children and young adults, offers an opportunity to discuss how sensory processing issues might affect pupils with Down syndrome, and to plan what can be done in everyday situations for individual pupils to make life easier, and promote the development of sensory processing skills.

If you are interested in  hosting this training day topic in your area please enquire to
Down Syndrome Development Trust on: 01273 615073 / 07897 373839
Or email: hello@downsyndromedevelopment.org.uk.

Follow up clinics after each training day are a good way of expanding the knowledge of parents and supporting members of staff; helping gain further guidance and support for teaching children and young people with DS on methods of best practise.

What happens at the clinics?

The children take part in group activities with the therapist followed by the informative discussion on methods observed,. It’s a great opportunity to watch a practical session on topics discussed in theory on training days.

Get in touch

If you are interested in taking part in a clinic day or would like to host one in your area please feel free to contact us at:

hello@downsyndromedevelopment.org.uk

Benefits to Cranial Osteopathy

Cranial osteopathy can have a number of positive effects on the skeletal development of the body. It has also been reported to make a big difference with upper respiratory issues that many children with Down syndrome suffer from.

If you would like to take part in the clinic email: hello@downsyndromedevelopment.org.uk

Your support is leading to results!

Roche Laboratories, teamed with other researchers, just published results describing a compound that reverses impaired brain cell signaling in a mouse model with Down syndrome.
The data demonstrated major cognitive and behavioral improvements in the mouse
model.

In 2011, Roche initiated a human clinical trial testing compound, RD 1662,
in persons with Down syndrome. This is a Phase I trial testing drug safety
and tolerability. Roche expects to complete this study this year. The compound
had already been tested in healthy volunteers and was shown to be well
tolerated. A second, non-drug study to evaluate cognition and adaptive behavior
in adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome is also underway.

Your contributions to Down Syndrome research helped fund the field of Down
syndrome cognitive research and the discovery of other potential drug
therapies.

Down Syndrome Development Trust will continue to use your generous donations to ensure greater life opportunities for persons with Down syndrome.

When and where

Runs one Saturday a month
Location: Seaford, East Sussex

About Bryn Musson (Registered Osteopath)

I qualified as an osteopath in 2000, and have been working at 3 different clinics through Sussex since then.  I particularly enjoy working with children and babies and have had quite a lot of experience of treating children with Down’s syndrome.  Osteopathic treatment with children is very gentle, to the point of not looking like you are doing anything at all, not like the joint cracking that people tend to expect from osteopaths and chiropractors.  The aim of the treatment is to ensure that all areas of the body have the freedom to move properly, and are receiving the right blood supply and nerve supply so that all the tissues can function as well as possible.

Treating issues relating to Down Syndrome

With Down Syndrome the most common problems I have seen are related to getting recurrent colds and chest infections.  Treatment through the chest can make a big difference to the breathing and reduce production of mucous as well.  We also work through the skull which may have an effect on brain development.  While there is very little medical evidence for what we do, my own experience is very positive.

To find out further information or register you interest contact the DSDT

Tel: 01323 890016
Email: hello@downsyndromedevelopment.org.uk