If you've been following our site over the past year or two, you will have doubtless read the regular blogs supplied by our professional advisor, Ann Wheeler.

Firstly, Ann is Mum to Allie who has Down syndrome. Secondly, she holds a Masters in Early Childhood Special Education and is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA).  Ann has worked extensively with children with learning difficulties in the US, UK and in Ireland where she developed S.K.I.P., an early intervention service for young children with Down syndrome.  Ann lived in Dublin for 10 years before she and her family returned to live permanently in the US and so is fully aware of issues relating to parents in Ireland.

She has extensive knowledge of behavioural issues relating to people with learning disabilities through her working career and her own, first-hand experiences in rearing Allie.

We are about to launch a new service which called "Talk to Ann" which will allow parents to discuss their child's behavioural and other issues with Ann in hourly conference calls.
 
We trialed this recently at the request of parent who was experiencing issues with her son and who was aware of Ann's extensive knowledge. Here's what she had to say about the service:

"In May 2011 we asked Down Syndrome Centre for advice on determining whether our son with DS was ready for school in September. Down Syndrome Centre arranged for a private consultation with their specialist, Ann Wheeler. We compiled a brief profile of our son, and put together list of questions and issues which we wanted input on, and forwarded them to Ann by email. Based on our initial inputs, Ann then asked us to answer a number of questions on his behaviour and social integration. Answering these questions took us over a week of investigation as we needed to gather information through observation of his interaction with his siblings and other children in the creche.

We sent the observations back to Ann and then scheduled the advisory conference call on Skype. Ann's input on the call was invaluable. She gave expert advice on how she believed we could motivate our son based on his current behavioural patterns. She also provided clear guidance on the probable cause and mitigation of a number of issues, advice we hadn't received from any of other sources of support we had availed of in the past. We have implemented a number of her suggested behaviour modification strategies with some success already. We'd have no hesitation in recommending Ann Wheeler's advisory service".

The service will be launched in coming weeks with a booking page to be built on the site which will allow parents to book a weekend call to Ann. There will be a fee of €75 which can be paid online.

We hope this service will allow many parents to access Ann's huge level of experience and find some practical answers to the problems their child is experiencing.

In the meantime, if you would like to avail of the service, email us at info@downsyndromecentre.ie with an outline of the issues you are facing and we will forward to Ann to get the ball rolling.

Got a question for Chief Executive Officer? If so, drop her an email here.