Classroom Language Skills For Children With Down Syndrome

Covers every aspect of a child's language needs from kindergarten through middle school.

Provides information and resources to improve children's communicaton at school, home and in the wider community.

Children with Down syndrome have significant delays in speech and language skills which will affect their progress during their primary school years. This module provides guidelines for the assessment of vocabulary, grammar, speech sound production and interactive communication skills, and activities to progress children's skills across all of these areas. The authors emphasise the importance of improving the quality and quantity of everyday communication experience for children with Down syndrome and the equally essential need to work on targeted activities for both speech and language skills. The majority of speech and language targets can be incorporated into the regular curriculum and daily activities in the classroom. This module follows on from Speech and language development for individuals with Down syndrome - An overview DSii-03-01] which should be read first, to provide the reader with an adequate understanding of speech and language development to be successful in using this programme.

This module provides a programme of activities and advice designed to assist the development of speech and language skills for children with Down syndrome from birth to five years. The advice and activities are based on knowledge of the processes affecting speech and language development in typically developing children, the identified difficulties of children with Down syndrome and current research findings from studies evaluating effective remedial strategies. It also includes checklists for evaluating and recording children's development of interactive communication skills, speech sounds, vocabulary, sentences and grammar. The programme will enable parents, teachers and therapists to help children with Down syndrome to learn to talk, to talk in sentences, and to develop their speech clarity and conversational skills. It starts with activities to develop the foundation skills in infancy that lead on to talking, including the use of gesture and sign to support comprehension, and with an emphasis on speech sound work from infancy.Building a spoken vocabulary to 400 words by 5 years of age is seen as a priority, in order to develop grammar and phonology, and a recommended vocabulary programme with record sheets is included. The ways in which reading activities should be used to support all aspects of speech and language learning during preschool years are mentioned but the detailed advice on teaching early reading is in the reading module. This module follows on from Speech and language development for individuals with Down syndrome - An overview DSii-03-01] which should be read first, to provide the reader with an adequate understanding of speech and language development to be successful in using this programme.

The Reading and Language Intervention for Children with Down Syndrome (RLI) teaches language and literacy skills following evidence-based principles adapted to meet the children’s specific learning needs. It is designed for pupils with Down syndrome aged 5 to 11 years. The intervention is suitable for beginning readers through to those with reading ages up to 8 years and for students with a wide range of language abilities. Teaching is adapted to meet individual needs through initial assessments of skills and regular monitoring of progress. Together with two accompanying DVDs illustrating teaching techniques and a CD of resources, the handbook offers teachers and teaching assistants the detailed guidance, assessment tools and example teaching materials needed to implement the intervention.

Covers speech and language development in children with Down syndrome from infancy through to early adolescence, and what parents and carers can to to help maximise their child's communication potential.

Reading skills are often a strength for teenagers with Down syndrome. Teenagers can often read at a higher level than would be predicted from their general cognitive and language abilities. Those who have not achieved reading success in their primary years may make significant progress during their teenage years. Reading and writing skills are important for everyday life and for access to the world of literature. They are also powerful tools for developing the speech and language of teenagers with Down syndrome and for mediating their cognitive development. Reading and writing can support communication, enable teenagers to achieve greater independence and enrich education and academic attainments across the curriculum. This module explains how language and literacy teaching can work together to promote the development of teenagers with Down syndrome. Guidance on teaching methods, expectations and examples of teenagers' work combine to show teachers and parents how to include teenagers in literacy learning programmes, with an understanding of particular issues related to speech, language and memory development.This module should be read in conjunction with Reading and writing for individuals with Down syndrome: An overview, DSii-07-01] as the overview provides important background information on how individuals learn to read, the adaptations that will help pupils with Down syndrome, and the benefits of being involved in reading instruction