Children with Down Syndrome commonly experience feeding, swallowing and speech difficulties due to anatomical and physiological differences in their mouth area. These differences include a high arched palate, small upper jaw as well as low muscle tone in the tongue and weak oral muscles.
Children with Down syndrome usually have delayed speech and language development. Typically, these children have a much harder time learning to talk (expressive language) than with understanding what they hear (receptive language).
Individuals with Downsyndromewill often have difficulty producing certain speech sounds, with some speech being difficult for others to understand. Children with Down syndrome commonly have delayed speech, language and communication skills in comparison to their typically developing peers.
Speech production of individuals with Down syndrome may be related to differences in oral structure and function (Miller & Leddy, 1998; Stoel-Gammon, 1997). Structural differences include a small oral cavity with a relatively large tongue and a narrow, high arched palate.
Why do people with Down syndrome struggle with speech? People with Down syndrome have difficulty with auditory tonal processing. About 40% of speech is interpreted through the tone in your voice, and without this, it's difficult to process language.
People with Down syndrome can expect to live to 60
In the 1940s, a child with Down syndrome had a life expectancy of 12 years. These days, their life expectancy is 60 years and a baby born with Down syndrome could live into their 80s — in line with the general population.
Psychotic symptoms have, however, been reported in hospitalized or clinic adult patients with Down syndrome and in older adults with dementia. For example, auditory hallucinations were reported in 45% of 22 adult patients with Down syndrome and depression [30], and Urv et al.
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.
Children with Down's syndrome are more likely to have congenital permanent inner ear hearing loss than the general population (which has an incidence of 1:1000). From teenage years onwards they a likely to develop degenerative cochlear changes, and most will have a significant hearing loss by the age of 40 years.
Most adults with Down syndrome are aware they have Down syndrome. Children with Down syndrome live ordinary lives filled with extraordinary needs. You cannot have mild or severe Down syndrome.
People with Down syndrome often experience a gradual decline in thinking ability (cognition) as they age, usually starting around age 50. Down syndrome is also associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer disease, a brain disorder that results in a gradual loss of memory, judgment, and ability to function.
What we see more commonly in people with Down syndrome is a complete lack of talking (in all settings) or whispering (this is not common in our patients but it is more common than selective mutism). This may be related to anxiety, depression, physical illness, and others.
Characteristics of Down syndrome
Often students will have strong empathy with others, good social skills, good short-term memory and visual learning skills.
Individuals with Down syndrome also show impaired explicit long-term memory for verbal information, and may also have particular problems in explicit long-term memory for visual-object associations.
There have been only a few reports of men with Down's syndrome fathering children. Again, if a man's partner did not have Down's syndrome, the chance that the baby would have the condition is 50%. If both partners have Down's syndrome there is a high chance of their children having the condition.
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.
Why do people with Down syndrome look the same? They have similar features due to extra genetic material that affects growth of the maxilla (part of the skull) and the bone, cartilage, and connective tissue in the head, known as the cranial neural crest.
Additionally, we have found that many adults with Down syndrome rely on self-talk to vent feelings such as sadness or frustration. They think out loud in order to process daily life events. This is because their speech or cognitive impairments inhibit communication.
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.
Many people with Down syndrome will make noises or do motor activities (e.g., arm movements) that appear to be self-stimulatory. These are called stereotypies (also known as self-stimulatory behavior). * They can include making sounds or doing repetitive movements or repetitively moving objects.
Men with Down syndrome are considered as infertile although the causes of infertility are not known in detail yet. Although this constitutes a general rule there are three confirmed cases of parenting by fathers with Down syndrome.
Kenny Cridge, the world's oldest living man with Down's Syndrome, celebrated his 76th birthday recently with family, friends and cake.
The answer is: Yes, a person with Down syndrome can get married and have children, and there are many successful experiences in marriage and childbearing in such category of people.
Do Individuals with Down Syndrome Have Sexual Feelings? In the past, sexuality was not considered an issue for any people with Down syndrome because of the inaccurate belief that intellectual disability produced permanent childhood. In fact, all people with Down syndrome have sexual feelings and intimacy needs.
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.