Educating a Child With Down Syndrome

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Recommended: Challenges of raising a disabled child

It’s Wednesday and a mother just kissed her son goodbye as he walked into the classroom. The mother walks back to her car and proceeds to work. Her son has Down Syndrome, but attends a private school where special needs children have their own classroom. Her son Alex loves going to school to see his friends, like any child would. With having Down Syndrome, Alex has some rough days in the classroom.

It’s 10:30am and Janice, Alex’s mother, receives a phone call. “Hi Janice, this is Mrs. Smith calling with regards to Alex. Yes, he isn’t having a good day. He has been very disruptive this morning. We tried calling down Alex’s older sister to calm him down, and to talk to him, but he wouldn’t calm down. Would you please come and get him?”

Janice receives multiple phone calls from staff at Alex’s school to come pick him up and take him home. He isn’t purposely being disruptive, he’s excited and eager to learn and sometimes the teachers don’t understand that, says Janice to herself. For Janice to always be “on-call” to collect her son definitely makes it difficult for her to hold down a steady job.

The final straw was when Janice walked into the school and found her son sitting in the school reception area with his older sister, while the rest of the students enjoyed a nice Christmas party. Janice said her son was clearly not wanted at that school, so she took the kids’ stuff and enrolled them into a public school where Alex was would be much more comfortable. The teachers were more comfortable dealing with children with complex needs.

We need to work on accepting and including children with Down Syndrome in local schools so that they are given an equal opportunity to advance their education and become successf...

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....dse. Web. November 13, 2013.

“Increasing Options and Improving Provision for Children with Special Educational Needs

(SEN).” Gov.UK. Crown Copyright. Web. November 22, 2013.

“Individualized Education Programs (IEP’s).” Kids Health from Nemours. The Nemours

Foundation. 1995-2013. Web. November 22, 2013.

Janet Murray. “Children with Disabilities Illegally Excluded from School.” The Guardian.

Guardian News and Media Limited or its Affiliated Companies. February 2013. Web.

November 8, 2013.

National Down Syndrome Society. “Myths and Truths.” The National Advocate for People with

Down Syndrome Since 1979.” 2012. Web. NDSS. November 21, 2013.

National Down Syndrome Society. “Universal Design for learning (UDL).” The National

Advocate for People with Down Syndrome 1979. 2012. Web. December 1, 2013.

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