EDUCATIONAL-THERAPEUTIC INTERVENTION IN LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENT FOR CHILDREN WITH TRISOMY 21 (DOWN SYNDROME)

Abstract

This paper provides general information on the trisomic child (Down syndrome) language and personal development, the assessment and the advancements made during the educational-therapeutic interventions. The tools used for achieving this goal are defined in this paper: facilitation and net acceleration of the communication and language development in the trisomic child. The mental retardation of the trisomic child affects his/her learning ability in several domains, having a negative impact on the child’s communication ability and therefore, these communication opportunities should be improved throughout the child’s life. The complementarity of similitude between psychomotricity and speech therapy is finalised by a better global response of the trisomic child behaviour. Therefore, we will resort to presenting the case study of a trisomic child, synthetically highlighting the stages of intervention, the evolution during the therapy, the partial results obtained, so as to pursue the therapy in order to achieve the goals established for the complex program of educational therapy. An early educational intervention contributes to the systematisation of all the chances to achieve a faster psychological development of the trisomic child, until the level that can possibly be reached.

Key words: Down syndrome, trisomy 21, therapy, language, communication

SCS_13_2009_3