WAYHEY 😀 🤩 🎤 🎬 🎹 🎼 🎸 🎺 !!

We are proud to announce our music project ‘SOUND SUMMIT ‘is being backed by @youthmusic @ace_national & @lottogoodcauses.

We’re super excited about our project, SOUND SUMMIT!

It’s going to offer our amazing young people the chance to join in weekly music lessons in cozy, small groups.

We’ll be using the fantastic team @ New Rock Generation  and their ‘Write, Record & Perform’ curriculum, which has been created specifically for young musicians and bands of every level.

The sessions will offer fun activities such as music tuition, songwriting, studio recording @ Small Pond Studios, pre-production, and even live performances!

Sessions are all about nurturing creativity, boosting performance skills, and even exploring the possibilities of a career in the music industry.

So Cool!!

We are so grateful to:

• @youthmusiccharity,
• @artscouncilofengland,
• @lotterygoodcauses,
• @newrockgen &
• @smallpondrecordings for supporting us all at DSDT.

A research study, recently published in the Journal of Child Language, has reported that children with Down syndrome can benefit from the use of written words alongside pictures to help teach spoken vocabulary.

A research study, recently published in the Journal of Child Language [1], has reported that children with Down syndrome can benefit from the use of written words to support oral vocabulary learning.

In the study, 17 children with Down syndrome aged 7 to 16 years were taught 10 nonwords (words that do not mean anything but can be pronounced – e.g. “vum”, “sav”, “zot”). The children were told that they were going to learn about an alien planet and shown pictures of imaginary alien objects corresponding to each nonword. Half of the nonwords were taught with flashcards showing the English spelling, while half were taught accompanied by flashcards showing ‘alien’ spellings (random Greek letters).

The children were tested 10-15 minutes after training by showing them the pictures corresponding to the nonwords they had been taught and asking them if they could remember the names.

The study found that children with Down syndrome learned more nonwords taught with flashcards showing the English spelling than nonwords taught with flashcards showing ‘alien’ spellings. The authors argue that this shows that the written word enables the children to use their knowledge of letters and corresponding sounds to confirm what the word should sound like when spoken and offers another representation of the word in memory that aids retrieval.

The study also compared the performance of the children with Down syndrome to typically developing children matched on single word reading ability. It found that children with Down syndrome benefited from the presence of written words to the same extent as typically developing children.

The authors conclude that “this study has shown that children with Down syndrome are able to learn the phonological form of new words to the same level as typically developing children matched for reading, and that they benefit from orthography to the same degree as typically developing children. A practical application of this work is that children would benefit from being shown a flashcard of the written form of a word when learning its spoken form. This lends empirical support to current practice recommended for children with Down syndrome…”

The study was supported by a CASE PhD studentship from the UK Economic and Social Research Council and Down Syndrome Education International.

Reference

1. Mengoni, S. E., Nash, H. and Hulme, C. (2013). The benefit of orthographic support for oral vocabulary learning in children with Down syndrome. Journal of Child Language, 40(1), 221-243. https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0305000912000396 and
   https://www.dseinternational.org/en-gb/news/.

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.

The Down Syndrome Development Trust’s first training event proved a success, with guest speaker Leela Baksi from Symbol UK.

About Symbol UK

Symbol has been able to demonstrate a model of speech and language therapy which acknowledges people with Down syndrome have a unqies profile which lends itself to a particular way of learning. Symbol has in collaboraration with other stakeholders, developed and research a range of specialist evidence based services.

The day was very well attended by more than 50 delegates, made up of professionals and parents. The day started with and introduction from Sen Smallwood of the DSDT and then followed by comprehensive coverage of speech and language issues for children of pre school to teenage yrs by senior SALT Leela Baksi. Throughout the day Leela effectively engaged the audience giving opportunities for practical discussion and advice on topics relevant to the questions raised by the attendees. Down Syndrome Development Trust also offered delegates the opportunity to take part in a free practical follow up clinic to consolidate skills learnt on the day. This clinic is due to take place in May and will be hosted in a school within East Sussex . This clinic is now fully booked.

Quotes from people on the day

‘Comprehensive and informative’

‘Excellent content, very good presentation’

‘Very informative. excellent, easy to understand format’

Further training days and clinics available

Down Syndrome Development Trust will be hosting our next East Sussex training day on Sept 20th 2013 titled ‘I’m not stubborn, I’m tenacious‘ addressing the topic on behaviour with Guest speaker Tessa Duffy MD of the Symbol group.

A leaflet will shortly be available to download here.
This day will also be followed by a practical clinic.