This is a follow on from the highly successful Early Intervention for Babies Workshop, which addresses the next stage of development and how to support the child into ‘toddlerhood’.

This workshop will be facilitated by two of our professional website advisors, Occupational Therapist Ailish Kavanagh and Speech and Language Therapist Marinet van Vuren.  And will take place in a Steiner ...

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Like the population at large, people with learning disabilities are living longer, and therefore an increasing number are developing dementia. Service providers, planners, doctors, social workers, carers and direct support staff need to be equipped with relevant knowledge prior to the onset of dementia, so that they can devise appropriate therapeutic interventions and coping strategies, including health and medication management ... Continue reading

The next Early Intervention for Babies Workshop, will take place on Saturday, Aug 20th 2011. This workshop is hosted by our website advisor, Speech and Language Therapist, Marinet Van Vuren, together with Chartered Paediatric Physiotherapist, Gloria Vaughan.

The workshop is limited to 12 sets of parents and the therapists will divide the three hour Saturday morning session between them to ... Continue reading

The second of our New Parent Evenings of 2011 takes place at 7.30pm on Tuesday 9th August in the Shelbourne Hotel, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2.
Our Down Syndrome Liaison Nurse, Angela O'Riordan will present to new parents.

There is no charge for attendance at these meetings which are organised to welcome parents of new babies with ... Continue reading

The first of our General Information Evenings for Parents of Children with Down syndrome takes place next Tuesday evening at 7.30pm (Tues 29th March) in the Shelbourne Hotel, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2. It is suitable for parents of children of all ages to attend.

There will be two speakers during the evening, and a coffee break inbetween ...

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In the last month or so we have been working on a new corporate video for DSC showing the work of Angela O'Riordan, Down Syndrome Liaison Nurse and the value her work is bringing both to new parents and to professionals.

In the course of gathering material for the video, we captured a number of parents - mums and dads ...

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Down Syndrome Centre is undertaking to try and ensure that all children with Down syndrome - regardless of their needs assessment classification - remain attached to their local services.
Since it has come to our attention that in many services children diagnosed with a mild needs assessment have their service withdrawn DSC have begun lobbying to change the existing policy.
The mission ... Continue reading

The progressive and proactive people the Down Syndrome Program in the Children's Hospital Boston are running a series of online lectures, which will be freely available to all over the internet.  The program is run by Dr Brian Skotko, Dr Emily Davidson and Angela Lombardo.

Oftentimes, we find ourselves with little time during clinical visits to discuss important topics ...

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We have been contacted by author, Margaret Barrett, to tell us of her book  "You And Your Disabled Child" - which she believes may of interest to parents who have been told that their child is likely to suffer from some sort of disability or developmental delay.

Explaining in greater detail, Margaret tell us, "This could be soon after the birth ...

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The European Council of Optometry and Optics (ECOO) has called for people with Down syndrome and their carers to ensure that vision needs are regularly monitored after new research into the structure of the eye in people with Down syndrome has found significant differences from the norm.

It is well known that people with Down syndrome are more likely to ... Continue reading

Children with Down syndrome can experience a wide range of orthopaedic problems due to their loose ligaments and hypotonia. These problems include scoliosis (side-to-side curvature of the spine), joint dislocation, hop and knee cap instability, weak ankles and problems with the feet including flat foot and metatarsus primus varus. Today we are going to have a look at the feet ...

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Brian Skotko, M.D., M.P.P., a physician at Children’s Hospital Boston whose sister has Down syndrome, and Susan Levine, a social worker drew on 33 years’ combined experience of running sibling support groups to offer eight recommendations for parents on how best to support siblings when a child with Down syndrome is welcomed to the family unit ... Continue reading

DSC has been contacted by the carer of a lady with Down syndrome who is 69 and lives in Galway.

The enquiry was whether this lady would be the oldest person living with Ds in Ireland.  The answer to this question was not one we were able to provide so we said we would ask you, our subscribers and visitors ...

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Jerome Lejeune

The group of birth characterisitics we refer to as Down syndrome was named after the man who first observed these traits, John Langdon Down.

For over half a century parents who had given birth to "mongol" children fell under the suspicion of breeding racial degeneracy and their offfspring were segregated in institutions and denied treatment or education.

Fast ...

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