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e-mail: pam@theupsofdowns.co.uk

Behaviour

There are no behaviour problems unique to children with Down’s syndrome. However, much of their behaviour will be related to their level of development and not to their chronological age. So, when problems occur, they are generally similar to those seen in typically developing children of a younger age.

In addition, many children with Down’s syndrome have to cope with more difficulties than many of their peers. Much of what they are expected to do in their everyday lives will be much harder to accomplish due to problems with their speech and language, auditory short-term memory, motor co-ordination, shorter concentration span, and learning difficulties. Children with Down’s syndrome can also take longer to "learn the rules" and understand change in their environment. As a result, they may feel more insecure and anxious and need additional, specific help.

Their thresholds for problem behaviours may therefore be lower than in typically developing children, i.e. they are likely to become frustrated or anxious more easily. So, having Down’s syndrome does not lead inevitably to behavioural problems; but the nature of their learning difficulties makes such children more vulnerable to the development of such problems.

Often at the root of inappropriate behaviour are the increasing cognitive demands facing the child with Down’s syndrome. The child may well be finding it difficult to cope with current activities and goals. Children with Down’s syndrome are often sensitive to failure. Recognition of this and a corresponding look at the child’s curriculum to ensure that it is suitably differentiated are therefore critical in responding to behaviour problems.

A particular aspect of problem behaviour is the use of avoidance strategies. Many children with Down’s syndrome tend to adopt these, thus undermining their progress. Some children tend to use social skills and attention seeking behaviours to avoid tasks - refusing, pretending to be less capable than they really are, distracting the adult etc.Causes

· Investigate any inappropriate behaviour. WHY is the child acting so?

· Is the work suitably differentiated? I.e. is the task too hard to be achievable? too long to be completed? Or too easy to sustain interest?

· Alternatively – is the task too different? Children with Down’s syndrome often dislike being "singled out" or given totally different work to their peers.

· Does the child understand what is expected?Behaviour

· Ensure that the children's developmental, not chronological, age is taken into account, together with their level of oral understanding.

· Distinguish "can’t do" from "won’t do".

· Separate immature behaviour from deliberately bad behaviour.

· Teach rules explicitly. Ensure they are clearly understood and reinforce them visually.

· Use short, clear instructions and clear body language for reinforcement: overlong explanations and excessively complex reasoning are not appropriate.

· Encourage positive behaviour by using visual reinforcement. E.g. for a younger children refusing to help tidy up, showing a photo or prompt card of children tidying up can be enough to encourage them to do the same.

· Ensure the child is working with peers who are acting as good role models.

· Give plenty of praise and encouragement and be clear and specific when praising the child.

· Reinforce the desired behaviour immediately with visual, oral or tangible rewards. For older children where rewards are not given immediately ensure the child is able to understand and cope with this situation.

· Take account of these factors in any reward offered. in any reward offered.

· For staff (teaching and non-teaching) involved with the child:

· Ensure that all staff are aware that the child must be disciplined along with their peers at all times, and are aware of the strategies to be employed.

· Ensure that all staff are firm and consistent at all times.

· Ensure that the LSA is not the only adult having to deal with the behaviour. The class teacher has ultimate responsibility.

· For older children agree the name of a key person who will act as first point of contact in cases of difficulty.

· Ensure that the child, staff and peers know the contact person, what procedure to follow and where to go if there is a problem.

· Establish good liaison with parents and discuss behavioural strategies jointly. Remember, parents can provide expert knowledge of their child.

· Avoidance and attention-seeking behaviour:

· Develop a range of strategies to deal with problems: some will work better than others.

· Be flexible: some strategies will work one day and not the next!

Try distraction rather than confrontation.

Look for ways of reinforcing good behaviour: star charts, extra time on computer etc.

Ignore attention-seeking behaviour within reasonable limits: it is aimed to distract.

Do not respond to attention seeking behaviour by giving attention: this will only reinforce it. Deal with the behaviour in as swift and impersonal manner as possible with minimal speech and eye contact.

Try a "time out" chair; an egg timer placed in front of the child can be useful for keeping the child focused and more likely to remain seated.

Do not attempt to target too many aspects of behaviour at one time. Decide on behaviour(s) and make clear what is not acceptable and what is desired. Decide on ways to reinforce the desired behaviour and record and chart progress if need be.eed be.

Sandy Alton

Advisory Teacher Down’s Syndrome Oxfordshire

DSA, June 2000

Children with Down’s syndrome are strong visual learners and poor auditory ones. The written word, which makes language visual, overcomes the difficulties that many children with Down’s syndrome have with learning through listening. There are then strong links between learning to read, which also improves working memory, and the development of language skills in children with Down’s syndrome.

Many are able to develop their reading skills to a useful and practical level and, by so doing, also improve and develop their understanding and speech and language skills. Reading also improves their articulation by providing more language practice, while seeing sentences in print helps them learn about sentence structure for use in spontaneous speech. Furthermore, reading is an area of the curriculum where many of the children can excel

Reading is therefore an important tool to help children with Down’s syndrome:
Improve their speech & language skills.
Develop their understanding.
Access the curriculum
Increase their self-esteem.

However, it is important to be aware of how children with Down’s syndrome learn to read, as this differs in some ways from the phonic based strategies recommended in the National Literacy Strategy. When teaching a child with Down’s syndrome to read, a key method is the use of whole word sight recognition: from the age of three or four, many children are able to build up a sight vocabulary of familiar and meaningful words in this way. Moreover, using phonics to decode words can be more difficult for young children with Down’s syndrome because it involves accurate hearing and good auditory discrimination of sounds as well as problem-solving skills – all common areas of difficulty in children with Down’s syndrome

Toilet Training

The process of teaching a child to use the toilet can be a frustrating one. This is especially true if the child has a developmental disability. The protocol listed below has been used successfully, with individuals with developmental disabilities of all ages.

In addition to the protocol listed below, It can be helpful if a child is able to observe others using the toilet. This may be something which a family is not comfortable with or is not appropriate in certain settings. That's fine.

A major factor in the success of this program is based on the development of an effective toileting schedule. To determine the right schedule for the child, data needs to be taken for at least 2-3 days on how often the child goes to the bathroom. To do this, dry pants checks should be done every 20 - 30 min (20 minutes is preferable). If your lucky, you can find diapers which have a strip which changes color when the child voids otherwise, it will be necessary to feel for moisture. Take special care to write down the times of the day that the child defecates as most people defecate at approximately the same time each day. This procedure is called baseline data. Once 2-3 days of data has been gathered, it will be necessary figure out approximately how often the child goes to the bathroom. To do this, divide the number of waking minutes by the number of times the child went to the bathroom.

The toileting schedule can now be set up. As a rule of thumb, the child should be taken to the bathroom, twice as often as the child's average for urinating and defecating. So, for example, if the child goes to the bathroom an average of once an hour, the child would be taken to the bathroom every 1/2 hour. When setting up the toileting schedule, keep in mind the times of the day that the child is most likely to defecate and try to have the toileting schedule occur close to these times.

Prior to taking the child to the bathroom, give the child a cue that it is time to go to the bathroom. I recommend helping the child to make the sign for toilet until they can make it independently. Using the sign for toilet will not stop those children who are verbal from saying "toilet" and will give the child a way of communicating when they have to go to the bathroom once they have mastered the toileting procedure thus making a toileting schedule unnecessary.

It is important that the bathroom be a very fun place. Reserve a couple of the child's favorite toys or books which they can only have access to while they are seated on the toilet. Also, music can be very helpful. Mozart and Rockabilly seem to work well.

When having the child sit on the toilet, don't force it. The experience needs to be a positive one. If the child doesn't want to sit on the toilet, leave the bathroom and try again at the next scheduled time. Also, don't have the child sit on the toilet for more than 5-7 minutes. If the child is going to void in the toilet, they will usually do it within that time frame. If the child voids in the toilet, make a big deal out of it, praise the child verbally and tactilely (hugs, pats on the back...) and give them access to a small very preferred edible reinforcer (not always necessary). While it will be important to reduce the use of the edible reinforcers as quickly as possible but, in the early stages of acquiring toileting skills, it will be more important to make voiding in the toilet an extremely momentous and positive experience for the child.

One modification which can be made to the protocol which many times will increase the child's rate of success at voiding in the toilet is to give them something to drink 15-20 min prior to the scheduled toileting time.

Information for Parents of Children with Special Educational Needs

The term special educational needs has a legal definition. Children with special educational needs (SEN) all have learning difficulties, or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn than most children of the same age. These children may need extra or different help from that given to other children of the same age.

The law says that children do not have learning difficulties just because their first language is not English. Of course some of these children may have learning difficulties as well.

Children with SEN may need extra help because of a range of needs, such as in thinking and understanding, physical or sensory difficulties, emotional and behavioural difficulties, or difficulties with speech and language or how they relate to and behave with other people.

Many children will have SEN of some kind at some time during their education. Schools and other organisations can help most children overcome the barriers their difficulties present quickly and easily. But a few children will need extra help for some or all of their time in school.

So SEN could mean that a child has difficulties with:

all of the work in school
reading, writing, number work or understanding information
expressing themselves or understanding what others are saying
making friends or relating to adults
behaving properly in school
organising themselves
some kind of sensory or physical needs which may affect them in school.

These are just examples.

Help for children with SEN will usually be in the child's ordinary, mainstream early education setting or school, sometimes with the help of outside specialists.

The Government has set out in the early learning goals of education for children from 3 to 5 years what most children should be able to do by the end of school reception year. The National Curriculum for children from 5 to 16 years also sets out what most children will learn at each stage of their education.

Of course children make progress at different rates and have different ways in which they learn best. Teachers are expected to take account of this by looking carefully at how they organise their lessons, the classroom, the books and materials they give to each child and the way they teach. So all teachers will consider a number of options and choose the most appropriate ways to help each child learn from a range of activities. This is often described as 'differentiating the curriculum'.

Children making slower progress or having particular difficulties in one area may be given extra help or different lessons to help them succeed. The National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies also provide for children to learn to read and write and understand numbers and mathematics in different ways and speeds, including special 'catch-up' work and other kinds of support.

So you should not assume, just because your child is making slower progress than you expected or the teachers are providing different support, help or activities in class, that your child has special educational needs.

What can you do if you are worried that your child may be having difficulties?

Your child's early years are a very important time for their physical, emotional, intellectual and social development. When your health visitor or doctor makes a routine check, they might suggest that there could be a problem. But if you have any worries of your own, you should get advice straightaway.

If your child is not yet at school or not yet going to an early education setting, you can talk to your doctor or health visitor who will be able to give you advice about the next steps to take.

If you think your child may have a special educational need that has not been identified by the school or early education setting, you should talk to your child's class teacher, to the SENCO (this is the person in the school or preschool who has a particular responsibility for co-ordinating help for children with special educational needs) or to the head teacher straightaway.

If your child is in a secondary school, you should talk to the child's form teacher, SENCO, head of year or head teacher.

It is best to start with your child's teacher or the SENCO. You will be able to talk over your concerns and find out what the school thinks. The SENCO will be able to explain what happens next.

Working together with your child's teachers will often help to sort out worries and problems. The closer you work with your child's teachers, the more successful any help for your child can be.

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