Abstract
The common characteristics of children having Down syndrome are their intellectual disability. All children born with this condition will experience some delays in their development and later some learning disabilities. The disorder is the most widespread chromosomal defect and is the source of brain disability in young children.
In fact, young children with this condition attend schools and the major concern is how they cope with such disabilities while in school. Down syndrome is not the only cause of intellectual disability. However, the paper will primarily focus on children with Down syndrome and the manner in which they cope with their learning experiences or situations.
That is, how they deal with issues such as access to education materials, accommodations, adjustments or modifications that are needed to support their learning activities. The findings are that children with Down syndrome experience delay in almost all areas of development. In addition, they have physical and mental challenges compared to normal students.
Generally, children with Down syndrome have difficulties accessing education materials and socializing with other students as a result of deficiency in their cognitive development, making their accommodation difficult in mainstream schools.
Introduction
This paper will specifically talk about Kim, a level two student suffering from Down syndrome. Down syndrome has been found to be one of the major causes of intellectual disability especially in young children.
The reason is that the condition has a profound effect on the general development and growth of Kim together with her experiences at school. Kim’s case will be used to generalize the problem children with Down syndrome are facing especially in schools as well as in their academic life.
Down syndrome is a genetic condition that is believed to be the major cause of intellectual disability in young children (Piek, 2006). According to Piek (2006), it is also indicated that Down syndrome is the most common form of mental retardation in young children. Moreover, Down syndrome is one of the childhood disorders with known etiology.
Coping with intellectual disabilities at schools is quite challenging. Initially, young children with intellectual disabilities such as Kim were normally segregated and transferred to special schools or specially treated (Shaddok, 2000).
However, the exclusion of young children with intellectual disability from the mainstream society has been found to have advertent effect on the general development of young children with intellectual disability (Broer et al., 2005).
Currently, players in education are encouraged to include children with disabilities within their mainstream classes in order to drive away the notion and the feeling of separation of children with intellectual disability from the rest of their class.
According to traditional definition of Down syndrome (IDEA as cited in Heward 2002, p. 186), mental retardation is “significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning existing in concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during developmental period that adversely affects a child’s educational performance”.
Children suffering from Down syndrome like Kim are likely to develop intelligent disability due to poor motor development and mental delay. This paper will be discussing the problems children with Down syndrome face in schools, what teachers can do to help children with Down syndrome and the social impacts of Down syndrome on schools.
Down syndrome
Down syndrome is the common chromosomal disorder around the world, and it is the major cause of intellectual disability (Down syndrome Victoria, 2009). Down syndrome should not be considered as an infection or malady. It should be seen as an order that crops up during pregnancy. Among every 700 to 900 births, at least one child is found with this condition.
The disorder is caused by the presence of another genetic material dubbed chromosome twenty one otherwise known as trisomy twenty one. In other words, people suffering from this condition have 47 chromosomes instead of the normal 46 (Piek, 2006).
The extra chromosome results from the duplication of three genes namely 21, q and 21 such that the duplicated segment of the chromosome becomes 21, q and 22. The genes 21, q and 22 found in the extra chromosome determine the phenotypes expressed in children with Down syndrome (Piek, 2006).
Down syndrome has been stigmatized in almost all societies (Broer et al., 2005). Down syndrome impedes the growth of young children but does not control their development (Down syndrome Victoria, 2009).
Individuals with this condition have their own abilities, talents, interests, and thoughts. Children with Down syndrome frequently encounter problems in both cognitive and physical development. However, there exist discrepancies depending on the individual.
The case
Problems related to learners with Down syndrome
The common characteristic of people suffering from this condition is the intellectual impairment. To be precise, every young person with Down syndrome tends to experience a number of setbacks in each phase of his/her growth process.
These areas include fine and gross motor skills, social and personal development, speech and language development as well as the cognitive development (Down syndrome Victoria, 2009) and some degree of learning disability.
The degrees in which these delays in development will occur depend on each individual. Similar to a normal child, the developments of children with Down syndrome are also influenced by environmental factors, family, social and cultural factors (Guralnick, 2005).
In the learning process, children suffering from Down syndrome conditions experience spurts in the acquisition of skills as well as periods of consolidations the same way normal learners do. Nevertheless, the gap between those children with Down syndrome and normal learners is wide (Kirsh et al., 2009).
The reason is that the speed in which children with Down syndrome learn and conceive concepts is quite low. In an inclusive class where all learners are equal, children with such condition do not generally get on well as their peers do.
Like all children with other forms of disabilities, children with Down syndrome like Kim have not been fully integrated in the mainstream curriculum. They still lack teaching aid materials as well as accessibility.
For instance, Children with Down syndrome often have poor development of working or short-term verbal memory. This has an effect on learning abilities, especially in language. It also has an effect on thinking, reasoning, and problem solving capabilities (Guralnick, 2005).
However, these children are good in visual learning. As such, they will immensely benefit from visual reinforcement materials and visual indicators including the learning charts, maps, diagrams, signs, labels, symbols and drawings.
They will also benefit from concrete materials such as colored chips, arithmetical-numerals, shaped-blocks, base-ten-blocks and fraction-bars. However, these materials might not be available or accessible to the children with Down syndrome.
In addition to problems associated with materials, children with Down syndrome like Kim have difficulties with their social behavior. This might have a profound effect in their relationship with other students in school resulting into difficulties related to their accommodation.
It is essential to encourage children like Kim to learn expected social behavior, especially in a mainstream setting where their peers act as role models (Guralnick, 2005).
However, there are certain relationship or social skills that children with Down syndrome will not automatically pick up as in the case of normal children. Relationship skills, such as friendship development, sharing, self-help skills and interpersonal skills are examples (Sanyer, 2006).
Despite relationship problems, children with Down syndrome have no specific behavior. They are expected to adhere to the behavior norms just like any other normal child though at the initial stages, explicit teaching, visual reinforcement, support and frequent repetition are highly needed (Piek, 2006). Challenging or inappropriate behavior in children with Down syndrome is always associated with unmet needs.
The first step to deal with such a case is to understand the root causes. Determining and understanding the root causes are likely to offer a clue that is necessary in modifying the behavior into a more appropriate one (Down syndrome Victoria, 2009).
Advice to the teacher in order to supporting Kim
Further, Kim should be helped maintain high expectation in both academic and behavior achievements. This will ensure she has the opportunity to attain her full prospective (Kirsh et al., 2009). To help Kim attain her full potential, it is essential that the teacher encourages inclusive classroom culture.
Secondly, the instructor should accomplish Kim’s learning needs the same way he does to normal students. The inclusion of Kim into mainstream classes will form the basis of her success instead of specialist training or using extra resources on other types of training (Shaddok, 2000).
On the academic front, Kim’s teachers should incorporate maximum use of visual support and tangible materials. These are very important in visual learning and in promoting the memory skills. Children with Down syndrome like Kim have been found to have poor development of working or short-term verbal memory. However, these children are good in visual learning (Guralnick, 2005).
On the behavioral aspect, the teacher should specifically discipline Kim along with the rest of students and consistently be firm at all time. This will eliminate discrimination and make Kim consistently behave according to the expectations. The teacher should also liaise with Kim’s parents in order to have joint behavioral strategies. Parents normally provide good account of their children.
During implementation of the behavioral strategies, the teacher should at all times avoid confrontations as well as attention seeking behaviors. Confrontations and attention seeking behaviors will make Kim feel disfranchised and start adopting avoidance behaviors that may end up disrupting his normal learning processes.
Avoiding attention seeking behaviors will also reduce stigmatization of Kim’s condition especially among the normal students. In addition, the teacher should be swift and impartial while dealing with any misbehavior to avoid the feelings of specialty and discrimination.
Social impact Kim’s disability have on her overall school experiences
Because of his speech and language deficiencies, Kim has to cope with more problems in school than the normal students. It would be difficult for Kim to undertake much of what is expected of him. Kim will take longer time to comprehend immediate environmental changes and to learn new regulations.
This would lead to the feelings of insecurity and anxiety in school. The vulnerability to social problems may make Kim have difficulties with her peers as well as teachers. These social problems include intolerance, impatience, running away from school and attracting unnecessary attention.
Moreover, the difficulties to contend with expected social norms, goals and school activities might undermine Kim’s academic progress. In addition, Kim might also start avoiding certain tasks, pretend to be less capable and be critical to all issues. In addition, Kim will tend to adopt avoidance behavior as a result of failure to meet certain social tasks.
Recommendation
To avoid stigmatization, neglect and discrimination, children with Down syndrome like Kim should not only be included in the mainstream learning institutions but also accepted by the society. Nevertheless, inclusion at schools as well as other learning institutions will depend on many factors including the attitudes of teachers.
Conclusion
Down syndrome has been found to be the major cause of intellectual disability among young children. Almost all children born with this condition experience some delay in their development resulting in some learning disability. Kim as one of the children suffering from Down syndrome is likely to develop intelligent disability because of poor motor development and mental delay.
In addition, Kim faces stigmatization, neglect, and separation from the mainstream society. Dealing with Kim’s problems especially in school has been a major concern. Therefore, it is advisable for teachers to understand the specific physical and social problems in order to formulate and offer the needed support.
Generally, children with Down syndrome face numerous challenges in school ranging from access to education materials to accommodations. They also have cognitive and behavioral problems that exacerbate their social and relationship difficulties with other children in school. However, children with Down syndrome have their own exceptionality a well as all the abilities of a normal child.
References
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Kirsh, B., Stergiou-Kitab, M., Gewurtzb, R., Dawson, D., Krupad, T., Lysaghtd, R. & Shawe, L. (2009). From margins to mainstream: What do we know about work integration for persons with brain injury, mental illness, and intellectual disability? Review Article, 32(2), 391-405
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