Down Syndrome Essay

Introduction About Down Syndrome

There are many disorders or syndromes that cause people to behave and act differently than others. Out of all these syndromes, I picked one of them. This is a very rare syndrome and an estimate of 4% of children in the U.S. have it. It is known as the translocation down syndrome. Translocation down syndrome is a type of down syndrome caused by rearranged chromosome material. A child with translocation down syndrome has 3 #21 chromosomes instead of the two pairs. Here,one of the chromosomes is attached to another and the extra chromosome is what causes the health problems is what causes the health problems associated with the disorder known as down syndrome.

Can Down syndrome be inherited?

Most cases of Down syndrome are not inherited. When the condition is caused by trisomy 21, the chromosomal abnormality occurs as a random event during the formation of reproductive cells in a parent. The abnormality usually occurs in egg cells, but it occasionally occurs in sperm cells. An error in cell division called nondisjunction results in a reproductive cell with an abnormal number of chromosomes. For example, an egg or sperm cell may gain an extra copy of chromosome 21. If one of these atypical reproductive cells contributes to the genetic makeup of a child, the child will have an extra chromosome 21 in each of the body's cells.

People with translocation Down syndrome can inherit the condition from an unaffected parent. The parent carries a rearrangement of genetic material between chromosome 21 and another chromosome. This rearrangement is called a balanced translocation. No genetic material is gained or lost in a balanced translocation, so these chromosomal changes usually do not cause any health probl...

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...ility, they are weak and are not as vigorous/ active as kids that don’t have down syndrome. Many kids with translocation down syndrome function differently than others because they have to deal with mental and physical problems unlike others and often need physical therapy. Not only that, kids with this disorder take intervention classes to try to improve the disorder as well as try to improve their physical, mental and intellectual abilities. Also, kids with down syndrome are slow in motor development(the ability to control one’s body movement’s). They also have verbal short-term memory loss.At school, kids with down syndrome should interact with others to build a foundation of social abilities allowing the child to be more sociable and participate in discussions in class. This will improve the level of functioning of a child with translocation down syndrome.