The most common musculoskeletal effects of Down syndrome include weak muscle tone (hypotonia) and ligaments that are too loose (ligament laxity). This leads to excessive joint flexibility.
They often have mild to moderate intellectual disability and may have specific challenges with attention span, verbal memory, and expressive communication. Behavioral problems such as stubbornness, impulsivity, and temper tantrums may be more common in children with Down syndrome.
Muscle strength is reduced up to 50% in people with Down syndrome compared to their peers without disability. Progressive resistance training improves muscle strength and endurance in people with Down syndrome.
Musculoskeletal issues are quite common in people who have Down's syndrome. There are different reasons for this including low muscle tone, lax ligaments and hypermobile joints.
Common Associated Conditions
Vision problems such as cataracts and amblyopia ("lazy eye") occur in 70% of children with Down syndrome, and hearing problems occur in about 60%. About 10% of children will have an intestinal malformation of some type, requiring surgery to correct.
Most individuals with Down syndrome have mild (IQ: 50–69) or moderate (IQ: 35–50) intellectual disability with some cases having severe (IQ: 20–35) difficulties. Those with mosaic Down syndrome typically have IQ scores 10–30 points higher than that.
People with Down syndrome can feel angry, sad, embarrassed or excited. In fact, rather than always being happy, people with Down syndrome are at higher risk of mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive behaviour than the general population.
Sleep problems are very frequent in people with Down syndrome (DS). Insomnia, excessive daytime sleepiness, and abnormal movements during sleep are present during their whole lifespan [1,2].
Heart defects — Approximately half of all babies with Down syndrome are born with (often repairable) heart defects. Usually, these defects affect the walls separating the four chambers of the heart.
Even though people with Down syndrome might act and look similar, each person has different abilities. People with Down syndrome usually have an IQ (a measure of intelligence) in the mildly-to-moderately low range and are slower to speak than other children.
Unfortunately many people associate Down syndrome with someone who is stubborn. The reality is that while your special needs student may be stubborn, it is not necessarily a symptom of Down syndrome. In truth, there are many people who are stubborn who have no handicap at all!
In our experience, some (or many) people with Down syndrome sweat less than others. This can cause the body temperatures of those individuals to rise when they exercise, are in a warm room, or are outside in warm weather.
Immunodeficiency in Down's Syndrome
It has been widely observed that pneumonia, other respiratory infections and gastrointestinal infections are more common in individuals with Down's Syndrome, particularly in very young children.
Depression is at least as common in people with Down's syndrome as it is in the general population and affects them in the same way. It is much more than just feeling sad or low for a while.
Students with DS cannot do this as well. They lack the language, the cognitive flexibility needed in verbal discourse and the larger world view to win many verbal arguments. So...they look stubborn.
Misconception: People who have Down syndrome cannot have children. Reality: It's true that a person with Down syndrome may have significant challenges in rearing a child. But women who have Down syndrome are fertile and can give birth to children.
Down Syndrome Learning Strengths
High capacity for empathy and social understanding. Strong visual short-term memory. Steady vocabulary acquisition. Age-appropriate self-help and daily living skills.
The most common musculoskeletal effects of Down syndrome include weak muscle tone (hypotonia) and ligaments that are too loose (ligament laxity). This leads to excessive joint flexibility.
As adults with Down syndrome grow older, there is increased risk of experiencing certain common mental health disorders like depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder and behavioral disturbances. A sudden or abrupt change in mood or behavior patterns warrants further investigation.
Today the average lifespan of a person with Down syndrome is approximately 60 years. As recently as 1983, the average lifespan of a person with Down syndrome was 25 years. The dramatic increase to 60 years is largely due to the end of the inhumane practice of institutionalizing people with Down syndrome.
People with Down syndrome still have pain, it is just the responses to pain that are reduced and delayed. There are likely multiple factors contributing and we need to be aware and understand the differences in pain responses.
Adults with Down syndrome are at increased risk of depression, hypothyroidism, and Alzheimer dementia (AD) as they age, all of which can cause behaviour changes.
Pulmonary infectious disease is the leading cause of mortality in Down syndrome, caused by both intrinsic (morphological factors) and extrinsic (immune dysfunction) factors. Listed in each organ cartoon are genes implicated in disturbed heart, lung and immune function.
Down syndrome is the most common cause of intellectual disability and every person with Down syndrome will have some level of intellectual disability. There will be some delay in development and some level of learning difficulty.
It is estimated that approximately 1 in every 1100 babies born in Australia will have Down syndrome. This means that approximately 290 new babies with Down syndrome are born each year. The incidence of births of children with Down syndrome increases with the age of the mother.