Down syndrome, Makaton & Core Boards

 In preparation for our new student (E) enrolling next term, Beth (Speech Language Therapist), shared some excellent learning about Down syndrome, Makaton and Core Boards.

Down syndrome: (full presentation)

• students with Down syndrome may take longer to acquire social skills, communication and thinking skills and physical skills (gross and fine motor)
• visual learning is helpful e.g. matching, selecting, naming
• Auditory memory and auditory processing delays mean we will need to increase our response time (wait time) and presenting information one step at a time
• Muscle hypotonia - lower muscle tone - avoid highly physical activity such as trampolines
• Due to differences in structure of ear, children are susceptible to frequent ear infections and children will have lower immunity so respiratory/sinus infections more frequent (maybe more absences)
• Gross motor skills - discourage 'W' sitting, foot stability in chairs important
• Positive reinforcement will be really important.  Beth was talking about sometimes children with Down syndrome repeating an inappropriate behaviour because their peers laugh etc. so it will be really important that E is getting lots of reinforcement for 'appropriate' behaviour at school.
• Numicon is great for children with Down syndrome and children who non-verbal - it's visual and allows children to show their thinking (rather than say)
• Lots of good information on TKI - Inclusive Education - Guide to Down syndrome and Learning 

Makaton - an intuitive sign language of 350 signs. Makaton is the how, the why is interaction.

• E does not yet speak so we can teach E signs with speech. It's expected she will speak so teaching the signs with speech is very important.
• Facial expressions and being eye to eye is important.
• Children with Down syndrome will use and learn nouns more easily
• We can get NZSL dictionary app on class iPads to access other signs we need
• To start with we need to focus on one sign/word at a time e.g. book, and then when E has one word we add one more e.g. green book
• Give child time to respond but don't wait too long - e.g. count to 10. Have the expectation E will communicate.
• It's recommended to use 4:1 ratio of 4 statements and one question - don't overwhelm E with questions.
• Have vocab for play areas ready - teacher and child prompts to learn the signs/vocab. I thought this (image below from Beth's Makaton PDF) was an awesome way we can organise vocab for different learning areas. 
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• We need to model correct, natural speech - not telegraphic speech like Sesame St's Elmo. So we'd say,, "E, you do it" not "E do it"
• Songs with NZSL will be helpful for all our learning

Core Boards 

• Learn organisation of board e.g. Teachers might practise at home with family or in staffroom. They're catagorised (subject/verb/object etc.) and then in alphabetical order.
• Beth's core board training notes
• These are concepts rather than direct translations
• You wouldn't limit (i.e. cut down) but you might mask some to start with.
• Laminated so can circle target words
• A Core Board is a 'bridge'

The info in the links will be helpful for us with regard to inclusive education practices, not just for supporting E.  Teachers and Learning Assistants working in Harakeke will need to know E's support plan and learning targets. It will be important we have a good partnership with E's whānau so the learning (especially around communication) can continue at home - learning stories and Seesaw will be good for this. E will have a network of support so good communication and shared understanding will be important.  

There's a lot of information here and it's important we don't feel overloaded - there's going to be support for us and E will be having a graduated start to school and her support will be ongoing (ORS).