This approach involves various activities to improve the child’s strength, control, and coordination of oral muscles, including the jaw, lips, tongue, and vocal folds. How can speech therapy help Down Syndrome?īelow are some ways a speech therapist can help As a result, they may struggle to express themselves since children must first understand spoken language before they can use it to communicate. For example, you might notice that your child has difficulty understanding the meaning of words and sentences or following instructions. The problem is associated with a breakdown in the hearing process where a child’s brain fails to make sense of what their ears hear because the auditory signal is distorted. Many children with Down Syndrome have difficulties correctly processing tones, leading to challenges in language processing. c.) Trouble with auditory tonal processing These differences are associated with limited skills in coordinated speech movements, reduced rate of speech, inappropriate intonation, and improper stress on words. For instance, some children with Down Syndrome may have features such as a narrow, high-arched palate and a small oral cavity with a relatively large tongue leading. b.) Uncoordinated oral-motor skillsĭifferences in oral structure and function among children with Down Syndrome are likely to affect their speech production. In addition, the intelligibility of their speech may be compromised, making it difficult to understand them. For example, the child will likely use keywords such as “me go school bus” instead of complete sentences. While most children without Down Syndrome start talking between 10 to 18 months, those with the condition begin at 24 to 36 months old.īesides the delayed speaking, you may notice that your child has sentence and grammar challenges.

The publisher and the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content or advertisements.Some speech difficulties exhibited by children with Down Syndrome include a.) Delayed language developmentĬhildren with Down Syndrome develop language skills more slowly than other children, thus delaying language acquisition and vocalization. The appearance of advertisements or/and product references in the publication is not a warranty, endorsement, or approval of the products or services advertised or of their effectiveness, quality or safety. This is particularly important when the recommended agent is a new and/or infrequently employed drug.ĭisclaimer: The statements, opinions and data contained in this publication are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of the publishers and the editor(s). However, in view of ongoing research, changes in government regulations, and the constant flow of information relating to drug therapy and drug reactions, the reader is urged to check the package insert for each drug for any changes in indications and dosage and for added warnings and precautions. No part of this publication may be translated into other languages, reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, microcopying, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.ĭrug Dosage: The authors and the publisher have exerted every effort to ensure that drug selection and dosage set forth in this text are in accord with current recommendations and practice at the time of publication. We further propose that the occurrence of such tissue-specific T21 mosaicism may have important ramifications for the understanding of the pathogenesis, prognosis and treatment of medical problems shared between people with DS and those in the general non-DS population.Ĭopyright: All rights reserved. In other words, we may all have a touch of DS. everyone carries some cells with an extra chromosome 21, in some tissues. We consider it likely that most, if not all, of us are T21 mosaics, i.e. an extra chromosome 21 (trisomy 21, T21), which is causative of Down syndrome (DS). Here, we highlight this challenge by the example of the very first chromosome aberration identified in the human genome, i.e. It is important to recognize that in this context, we still lack basic knowledge on the impact of the CNV in normal cells from individual tissues, including that of whole chromosomes (aneuploidy). More specifically, this concerns interindividual variation in copy number (CNV) of structural chromosome aberrations, i.e.

Ever increasing sophistication in the application of new analytical technology has revealed that our genomes are much more fluid than was contemplated only a few years ago.

Mosaic down syndrome