How to deal with someone affected by downs syndrome

Panthera Leo

Hello Everyone

My father is a Medical Doctor and he has a patient who is suffering from downs syndrome,I am kind of curios to understand how to deal with them in terms of social communications, because this person is only slightly effected but still not normal at all!

I will highly appreciate any links or suggestions.

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I never think of future - it comes soon enough
Albert Einstein

Markface

There's always a strong language barrier issue with those suffering Down's syndrome, usually due to lack of language development during the first 5 years of ones life, which is a critical learning period in regards to language for any child.

If this syndrome isn't picked up, the child won't have adequate intervention allowing them to learn the necessary language skills to engage in conversation. While intervention won't allow them to talk as freely and precisely as someone without the syndrome, it will let them pick up language skills that are quite vital to maintain communication. These are things such as spacial memory, numeracy knowledge, etc.

I wrote a short paper on the importance of language development in children suffering Down's syndrome from ages 0-5. Just gave Google a quick search and found this article;

http://www.down-syndrome.org/informa...lopment/early/

More in depth than me, anyway :P

Monique

That's a difficult question to answer, in general I'd be inclined to say to treat them how you would any other individual and go along with the feedback you are getting. People with Down syndrome have mild to moderate mental retardation (below average IQ), but that shouldn't matter in a social interaction.

You can browse this website and get more background information: http://www.ndss.org/index.php

Panthera Leo

Thank you for your contribution,

Assuming that a person is only mildly affected with downs syndrome and is fully capable of all sorts of social communication, but lacks understanding of many phenomena, how would you communicate with such person?

lisab

I'd ask them about themselves. What hobbies do they have, what movies do they like? What music do they listen to?

nobahar

Just a small point, and I assume you didn't mean it in a bad way, but just be careful with the language you use.

jscroft

Yes! For goodness' sake, don't opt in favor of brevity or precision when political correctness is at stake!