Research

"The charity is now central to the worldwide understanding and sharing of research from many academics and longer-term experience of those working with generations of children with Down syndrome." (New Philanthropy Capital, London, UK)

"The charity has had a profound impact on the Down syndrome research and practice community for the past three decades. It combines a scientifically grounded approach to educating individuals with Down syndrome with a passion for improving the life of each child." (Professor Deborah Fidler, Colorado State University, USA)

Our research identifies how development differs and discovers new ways to improve learning and educational outcomes for young people with Down syndrome.

Over the past 30 years, our studies have delivered important insights into speech and language, memory, reading, number and mathematics, social skills, education, sleep and behaviour for people with Down syndrome. Our research has repeatedly demonstrated the potential of children with Down syndrome to learn more when given the opportunity and appropriate support.

Our focus

We focus on practical scientific studies of young people with Down syndrome that identify their precise learning difficulties and that evaluate teaching approaches adapted to their particular needs.

We take a 'real world' view of development, studying learning for young people with Down syndrome in everyday family life and in school. We examine all aspects of development. Many things influence development, including our genes, our families and communities, and the opportunities that we are offered. Our research examines all of these factors in the context of the complex and cumulative processes of human development.

We ensure that our research delivers benefits for people with Down syndrome living today by identifying and evaluating evidence-based interventions, and by disseminating our findings to families and professionals worldwide.

Current projects

We are currently conducting a randomised controlled trial of a reading intervention designed for elementary pupils with Down syndrome involving nearly 60 schools in two areas in the UK and partners at the Centre for Reading and Language at the University of York. This is the first large controlled study of an intervention designed for children with Down syndrome.

The preliminary results are encouraging and suggest that targeted teaching approaches can substantially improve rates of progress for these children. The results will be published in full later in 2011 or early 2012.

We have also recently embarked on a randomised controlled trial of a computer-based adaptive memory training program with children with Down syndrome. This program has previously been shown to deliver sustained improvements in working memory function for children with ADHD. Again, preliminary results with children with Down syndrome are encouraging. The results from this study will also be published later in 2011 or early 2012.

Other ongoing work undertaken or supported by Down Syndrome Education International includes studies of early language development, the emergence of of autism and autism-like behaviours in young children with Down syndrome, improving early problem solving skills, teaching early phonics skills, early number teaching approaches, attention skills, and more.