New Down syndrome research projects underway

With the backing of the Sue Buckley Research Fund, the Trust has started three new research studies involving preschool children with Down syndrome. These new studies aim to shed new light on the development of children with Down syndrome during their vital preschool years.

Research into preschool development

Three new research projects investigating the development of toddlers and preschool children with Down syndrome (aged 18-42 months) have started at The Sarah Duffen Centre. These new investigations are looking at:

• early reading development
• spoken and sign language
• early social and communication skills

These studies are involving around 40 families and children who attend the Trust's Early Development Groups, and will follow their development over the coming 18 months.

The research projects are being led by Dr Angela Byrne, the Trust's Assistant Director of Science and Research, and are being supported during 2008 by Becky Baxter, Julie Hughes and Gillian Bird (the Trust's Early Development Group service team) and two volunteer placement students (Jack Coulbeck and Kate Hill) from the Department of Psychology at the University of Plymouth.

Research into early reading

The early reading study will follow the reading progress of the children and explore the relationships between their reading progress, spoken language, speech-sound perception and cognitive skills. Research has already shown that reading abilities can be a real strength for many children with Down syndrome and improve their spoken language but all the reasons for the wide individual differences in progress are still not understood. The information the Trust is gathering should enable it to give better advice on how to tailor teaching approaches to the needs of individual children. If funds permit, the Trust hopes to follow the group of children into school.

Research into spoken and sign language

The language study will document in detail the use of signs and the emergence of talking in these children. While the use of signing is felt by most experts in the field to be beneficial in promoting good early understanding and communication, there is no published research which documents the extent to which signs are actually used by children with Down syndrome and how this may vary among individuals. The Trust will be keeping detailed records of sign and spoken language development to see how one links to the other and explore the links between speech-motor skills and the transfer from using signs to using words. The Trust hopes that this information will enable parents and therapists to understand the best ways to use sign most effectively as a bridge to talking.

Research into early social and communication skills

The research into early social and communication skills will document the development of key social understanding and communication behaviours in detail and how they change over time. The behaviours the Trust will document are those that are important in diagnosing autistic profiles in children without Down syndrome. However, at present there is not enough information about how these behaviours develop and change over time in children with Down syndrome to know if they are reliable indicators of autism or whether they sometimes lead to over-diagnosis in these children. Therefore this study should contribute to the development of more accurate diagnostic indicators and also allow early identification of children at risk. The next step will then be to explore the effects of timely interventions for these children in order to reduce ‘autistic’ behaviours and improve their social understanding and communication skills.

Supported by the Sue Buckley Research Fund

The Trust has been able to start these new projects as a result of generous donations made to the Sue Buckley Research Fund - the Trust's new fund to increase research into Down syndrome.

Please consider making a donation to the Sue Buckley Research Fund to enable the Trust to extend these longitudinal studies and to undertake further important research.