Advances in educational strategies for children with Down syndrome

Purpose of review Given the recent explosion in research on the behavioral aspects of many genetic causes of developmental disorders, it may soon be possible to develop ‘etiology-specific’ programs of intervention. Down syndrome may be particularly interesting in this regard because children with this disorder show relative weaknesses in grammar, articulation, and receptive language; at the same time, these children show relative strengths in visual short-term memory. For over a decade, instruction in reading has been suggested as an entryway into language for children with Down syndrome. Recent findings Current reading studies focus on both the processes and effects of learning to read as well as on the best approaches to teach reading. Children with Down syndrome may not perform as well as typically developing children in understanding several aspects of phonological awareness (e.g. detecting whether two words rhyme). In addition, the direction of effects seems to be language-into-reading, and not vice versa. Finally, an ‘analytic’ (i.e. phonologic) approach to reading may be better for these children than a sight-word approach. Summary Despite a cognitive-linguistic profile that would seem to support reading as an entryway into more complex language, children with Down syndrome have difficulties with aspects of phonologic processing and, like typical children, appear to need such phonologic skills to achieve higher levels of reading. To date, then, the connections remain elusive between cognitive-linguistic profiles and reading instruction in Down syndrome.