As mentioned by Lynch in his article Onset of speech-like vocalizations in Infants with Down Syndrome, children with Down Syndrome do not acquire canonical babbling and produce words at the same time as children with traditional linguistic development (1995). To compensate this lack of abilities to communicate orally, children with Down Syndrome tend to use gestures and non-verbal language to get an object they want or for other requests. As mentioned earlier, Jules’ parents taught their son simple sign language to communicate words useful on a daily basis in the child environment.
As observed in the video, when Louis simply stated the words which referred to the object presented to him, Jules found different ways to communicate what he saw …show more content…
This point was also supported by the speech-therapist who gave strategies to Jules’ caregivers. His mother stated that they had implemented different strategies at home, which they applied in their daily life to foster the child’s development. For instance, they bought a call bell and evertimes they rang it, it was hugging time. After a while, it became natural for Louis and Jules to hug each other or their parents when they would hear the bell. This habit helped to develop a method to communicate affection. On the Down Syndrome Education (DSE) website, Judith Barker, a music teacher and mother of a child with Down syndrome, explained the relevance of teaching songs to DS children. She mentioned that besides being entertaining, songs contain repetition, new vocabulary put in context and rhythmic patterns which are all important features to reinforce the use of the language for children with learning difficulties (Barker, 2017). Jules’s mother mentioned that they used to sing a wide range of song to their children. Jules had a good capacity to remember the melody and when the songs were accompanied of gestures, he could remember most of …show more content…
For this research project, the observed sessions allowed the researchers to identify various methods employed by a children with DS in respect to what was already found in the previous literature.
In their study, Iverson, Longobardi & Caselli (2003) observed that gestures had a significant impact on language development for children with DS. As seen in the session with Jules, gestures were used to communicate his answer to the stimulus. And he could do so because he had been given the tools to communicate. Jules’ parents and specialists definitely are important players in Jules’ language development
As observed in the video, when Louis simply stated the words which referred to the object presented to him, Jules found different ways to communicate what he saw …show more content…
This point was also supported by the speech-therapist who gave strategies to Jules’ caregivers. His mother stated that they had implemented different strategies at home, which they applied in their daily life to foster the child’s development. For instance, they bought a call bell and evertimes they rang it, it was hugging time. After a while, it became natural for Louis and Jules to hug each other or their parents when they would hear the bell. This habit helped to develop a method to communicate affection. On the Down Syndrome Education (DSE) website, Judith Barker, a music teacher and mother of a child with Down syndrome, explained the relevance of teaching songs to DS children. She mentioned that besides being entertaining, songs contain repetition, new vocabulary put in context and rhythmic patterns which are all important features to reinforce the use of the language for children with learning difficulties (Barker, 2017). Jules’s mother mentioned that they used to sing a wide range of song to their children. Jules had a good capacity to remember the melody and when the songs were accompanied of gestures, he could remember most of …show more content…
For this research project, the observed sessions allowed the researchers to identify various methods employed by a children with DS in respect to what was already found in the previous literature.
In their study, Iverson, Longobardi & Caselli (2003) observed that gestures had a significant impact on language development for children with DS. As seen in the session with Jules, gestures were used to communicate his answer to the stimulus. And he could do so because he had been given the tools to communicate. Jules’ parents and specialists definitely are important players in Jules’ language development