Most children with Down syndrome meet developmental milestones later than other children, including the ability to walk and talk. They often have mild to moderate intellectual disability and may have specific challenges with attention span, verbal memory, and expressive communication.
Adults with Down syndrome often develop chronic health problems, such as severe sleep apnea, digestive disorders, thyroid conditions, and obesity. Many develop Alzheimer's disease in middle age.
Behavioral issues can include attention problems, obsessive/compulsive behavior, and stubbornness or tantrums. A small percentage of people with Down syndrome are also diagnosed with developmental conditions called autism spectrum disorders, which affect communication and social interaction.
While every child with Down Syndrome is unique, there are some common challenges that many families face. Children with Down Syndrome may develop at a slower pace than typically developing children. They may require extra support and therapy to develop language, social skills, and motor skills.
Down Syndrome Learning Difficulties
Hearing and vision weakness. Fine motor skill impairment due to low muscle tone. Weak auditory memory. Short attention span and distractibility.
Children and adults with Down syndrome experience all the same emotions everyone experiences, both good and bad. They also experience mental health disorders including depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and others.
Social development
Most children and adults with Down syndrome continue to develop good social skills and appropriate social behaviour, though a significant minority may develop difficult behaviours, particularly those with the greatest delays in speech and language development.
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.
Yes. A woman with Down's syndrome can have children. If her partner does not have Down's syndrome, the theoretical chance of the child having Down's syndrome is 50%. There have been only a few reports of men with Down's syndrome fathering children.
7 individuals with Down syndrome (mean mental age = 8.18 +/- 2.73 years; mean chronological age = 29.8 +/- 5.4 years) and a group of 9 typically developing children, matched for mental age, (mean mental age = 8.40 +/- 1.73 years; mean chronological age = 7.2 +/- 1.2 years) were given a version of Cooper and Shepherd's ...
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.
Forming and maintaining friendships after high school is difficult for everyone. Individuals with Down syndrome often face added challenges. Adults with Down syndrome might have transportation limitations. They may or may not have the ability to drive themselves to see a friend.
Behavior problems are even more common in children with down syndrome. 1 in 3 children with down syndrome has behavior problems that are serious enough to be diagnosed by a professional.
Some people with Down syndrome marry. Most men with Down syndrome cannot father a child. In any pregnancy, a woman with Down syndrome has a 1 in 2 chance of conceiving a child with Down syndrome. Many of the pregnancies are miscarried.
Down syndrome varies in severity among individuals, causing lifelong intellectual disability and developmental delays. It's the most common genetic chromosomal disorder and cause of learning disabilities in children. It also commonly causes other medical abnormalities, including heart and gastrointestinal disorders.
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.
Their personality characteristics vary, as well. Think of the different personality traits that typical people have and you have just as many traits that can occur in people with Down syndrome – they can be funny, sarcastic, indifferent, ambitious, laid back, high strung, loving… the list could go on forever.
Most children with Down syndrome meet developmental milestones later than other children, including the ability to walk and talk. They often have mild to moderate intellectual disability and may have specific challenges with attention span, verbal memory, and expressive communication.
4,5 A Finnish study showed that, of a population of 129, only 9% had shown severe irritability, disturbing behaviour and physically attacked others, and 4% had been difficult to manage or even dangerous to others. 3 These aggressive behaviours were statisti- cally significant amongst male patients rather than females.
People of all ages with Down syndrome can and do enjoy a variety of relationships with family members, friends, acquaintances, community members, and even sweethearts and spouses.
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.
Misconception: People who have Down syndrome don't feel pain. Reality: People with Down syndrome absolutely feel pain.
In a sample of 75 children with trisomy for chromosome 21, or Down syndrome, there were 42 males and 33 females. The sex ratio was 1.30 which is statistically not significant (p greater than 0.05).