Fine Motor Skills In Children With Down Syndrome

Written for parents, health professionals and teachers, this is a guide to understanding and developing fine motor skills in children with Down Syndrome. The author draws on her expertise as a occupational therapist and parent to show readers how to help children develop the hand skills required for such tasks as holding a pencil, cutting with scissors, or using a computer. The author is sensitive to the medical, physical and psychological characteristics of children with Down Syndrome and how these can effect motor development. Dozens of articles are provided, complete with photographs and step-by-step instructions, which are appropriate for children in infancy to early adolescence. In addition to hand skills, some cover basic gross motor skills, which help to lay the foundation for fine motor development. Readers can choose among different categories of skills - self-help, school activities, leisure and recreation - and easily incorporate most activities into daily home or school routines.

This book explains the best practices and procedures for helping children master the finger and hand skills needed for home and school activities.

Revision of: Gross motor skills in children with Down syndrome. 1997.

The popular book, Fine Motor Skills for Children with Down Syndrome is now available in a completely revised third edition. The author, an occupational therapist and parent of an adult with Down syndrome, describes how the characteristics of Down syndrome can impact the acquisition and progression of fine motor skills. She presents a thorough overview of the building blocks of fine motor development, from infancy through to adulthood: Early arm and hand control; Stability; Bilateral coordination; Sensation; and Dexterity. Use the book's step-by-step activities to build daily living skills for home and school: Scissor skills; Pencil grasp development; Pre-printing, printing & cursive writing; Keyboard skills; Computer & tablet skills; and Dressing, grooming, and feeding skills. Throughout the book, the author suggests ways to incorporate fine motor skill development opportunities into as many day-to-day activities as possible, recognizing how impractical it is to constantly be in "therapy" mode with a child. Suggestions for gift ideas are offered in "Grandma's and Grandpa's list" at the end of each chapter. With expanded and updated information on fine motor skills and computer and personal electronic device use, keyboarding skills, postural support, sensory processing, and the adult years, readers will have at their fingertips a cornucopia of information and guidance to support the fine motor development of children and adults.

Newly revised and updated, this compassionate and authoritative guide is based on Libby Kumin's more than thirty years experience working with children and adolescents with Down syndrome and their families. As the founder of the Down Syndrome Center for Excellence at Loyola University in Maryland, she draws on her vast experience to show parents how they can support and encourage their child's speech and language development from birth to age 6 (or when a child can form 2- to 3- word sentences). Parents and teachers learn how to work through characteristic challenges, including hearing loss, intelligibility issues, apraxia (difficulty planning oral-motor movements), or a slower pace of development. Families soon see that many children with Down syndrome are natural and willing communicators. In a warm and conversational style, the author shares her professional expertise in parent-friendly terms. She uses specific examples of difficulties and successes to illustrate the concepts behind speech and language development, and includes the latest research supporting current early intervention and preschool approaches that can be used at home and in schools. This third edition of EARLY COMMUNICATION SKILLS features expanded information on the needs of children with apraxia, dual diagnosis of autism and Down syndrome, and updated terminology and information on special education law. A new chapter explains how technology and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) ? smartphones, iPods, iPads, and apps ? can help with speech and language, foster communication, and provide inexpensive transitional language systems. Dozens of forms are now included on a CD-ROM to be used for assessment, developing treatment plans, and keeping detailed records of progress. Teachers, speech-language pathologists, and parents will love the convenience of printing multiple copies of forms and organizing information for IEP meetings or periodic evaluations.

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.

Children with Down syndrome master gross motor skills -- everything from rolling over to running but need additional help and encouragement to maximise development. In this book the author, a physical therapist, shares her experience gained from sixteen years specialising in the motor development of children with Down Syndrome. This book provides parents and professionals with essential information about motor development including the impact of temperament and the effect of physical and medical conditions associated with Down syndrome.

This book is divided into Sections. Each Section is devoted to a particular theme in Motor Development and comprises two or more contributions. The order of presentation is largely fortuitous and does not reflect any value judgement on the part of the editors as to the importance of anyone theme in comparison to others addressed' in the book. This volume is to be seen as a companion volume to 'Motor Development in Children: Aspects of coordination and control' in which the more general issues in motor development presented during the Institute are published. Together, the two volumes provide both a general and a theme specific approach to this expanding field of knowledge. XI PREFACE Books and conferences, on what in North America is euphemistically termed motor development, have been few and far between in the past 25 years. This is not to say that the study of how children acquire and develop motor skills has not been a subject on which scientists have focused their attention. In the United States in the 1930's and 1940's, Bayley (1935) and Gesell and Amatruda (1947) described and scaled the rates at which young children acquired motor skills. In Europe, the development of childrens' motor behaviour was of theoretical interest to Piaget (1952).