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Professor Sue BuckleySue Buckley - Down Syndrome Education International

OBE, BA (Hons), CPsychol, AFBPsS

Roles

  • Director of Science and Research
  • Chief Scientist
  • Emeritus Professor of Developmental Disability, Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth, UK

Responsibilities

Our research activities are led by Professor Sue Buckley, the charity's founder and Chief Scientist, and one of the world's leading researchers in the education and development of children with Down syndrome. Sue has also helped the charity establish the Sue Buckley Research Fund to improve education for people with Down syndrome by accelerating progress in scientific research and ensuring widespread access to evidence-based advice and information

Background

Sue Buckley is a Chartered Psychologist with over 30 years of experience in the field of developmental disability. Sue read Psychology at the University of Reading, UK and then went to Oxford, UK, for training in Clinical Psychology. She worked in the National Health Service for several years and moved to teaching in the Psychology Department, University of Portsmouth in 1975.

Sue continued clinical work in the community establishing early intervention services in the 1970s and began research into the learning needs of children with Down syndrome in 1980. She continued to teach and research in the University as well as establish the work of Down Syndrome Education International from 1980. She also worked on national and local government bodies tasked with improving services for individuals with disabilities.

Sue was awarded a personal chair and appointed Professor by the University in 1994 in recognition of her work in research and teaching in developmental disability. In 2000, she left the University to work full-time for DSEI while retaining her research links with the University, which awarded her Emeritus Professor status.

For the past 25 years, Sue has travelled widely to speak at conferences and training events and she is in high demand as a speaker. She has also published widely for families, practitioners and researchers and played a leading role in stimulating growth in research into the education and development of children with Down syndrome worldwide.

Sue's unique contribution to scientific understanding has been recognised in the following awards:

  • the inaugural scientific award at the first international Biennial Scientific Conference on Down Syndrome in 1998
  • an OBE for her services to special needs education in the Queen's 2004 Birthday Honours List
  • the Theodore D Tjossen Research Award by the National Down Syndrome Congress in the USA in 2005

Sue is knowledgeable about most aspects of the development of children and adolescents with Down syndrome, but her special area of expertise is cognitive development, particularly language, literacy and memory development. Sue also has firsthand experience of many of the issues that affect families as the eldest of her three children, Roberta, has Down syndrome and was adopted into Sue's family when a baby. Roberta is now an adult living with her partner in supported independent living facilities.

Selected Publications

  • Buckley, S. (2003). Literacy and Language. In Rondal, J. & Buckley, S. J. (Eds) (in press) Speech and Language Intervention in Down syndrome. (pp. 132-153). London: Whurr.
  • Buckley, S.J., Bird, G., & Sacks, B. (2006).Evidence that we can change the profile from a study of inclusive education. Down Syndrome Research and Practice 9 (3), 51-53.
  • Buckley, S.J., Bird, G., Sacks, B. & Archer, T (2006). A comparison of mainstream and special school education for teenagers with Down syndrome: Effects on social and academic development. Down Syndrome Research and Practice 9 (3), 54-67.
  • Buckley, S., Bird, G., Sacks, B. & Archer, T. (2007). Mainstream or special education for teenagers with Down syndrome. In Jean-Adolphe Rondal & Alberto Rasore-Quartino (Eds.). Therapies and Rehabilitation in Down Syndrome. Chichester: Wiley
  • Buckley, S. J. & Johnson-Glenberg, M.C. (2008) Increasing literacy learning in Down syndrome and Fragile X syndrome.  In J. E. Roberts, R.S. Chapman & S.F. Warren (Eds.) Speech and Language Development and Intervention in Down Syndrome and Fragile X Syndrome. (pp 233-254). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.