Down Syndrome Kerry
Down Syndrome Kerry
How we help:

Speech and Language Therapy

Speech and language therapists are healthcare professionals who assess, diagnose and provide treatment for various speech, language, communication and swallowing difficulties across a range of settings, such as clinics, clients' homes, hospitals and nursing homes. Speech and language therapists are qualified to work with both children and adults, in order to achieve each individual's potential to communicate and swallow effectively. Speech and language therapists also work with our clients' families, school settings and other relevant professionals, in order to provide a high level of individualised care.


Occupational Therapy:

Occupational Therapists are healthcare professionals who support children and adults who present with physical, psychological and social needs, such as illness, injury and disability, to enable them to do everyday tasks that they need and what to do. Occupational Therapists can work with children and adults to support the development of their independence skills, such as self-care skills, play skills, gross and fine motor skills sleep and sensory integration, as well as seating assessments for wheelchairs and housing adaptions.

Down Syndrome Kerry

Behavioural Therapy

Behavioural Therapy broadly entails the provision of Positive Behaviour Support services to children/young people and their families.

Behavioural Therapy aims to teach skills including independent living skills, task engagement, functional play skills, emotional regulation and coping skills, with a view to supporting children and young people to reach individualised goals. The focus is often on behaviours that challenge. Through a functional assessment of the behaviour, the reason why the young person is engaging in this behaviour can be identified. A Behaviour Support Plan is then devised in conjunction with the young person, their parents and often their educational team. This prioritizes the teaching of adaptive skills, thus reducing the young person’s need to engage in the behavior that challenges. The process is always client-centred and tailored to support the young person reach their own potential. Supporting parents and other people within the young person’s life also forms a large component of this work.

Down Syndrome Kerry

Physiotherapy

Why do children with Down syndrome need Physiotherapy? Individuals with Ds have hypotonia (low muscle tone) and as babies they are often identified as being “floppy”. The level of hypotonia can vary from child to child but with intervention and improved movement skills the muscle tone will improve. Children with Down syndrome have decreased muscle strength, and this affects a child’s ability to carry out smooth purposeful movement. Children with Ds also have ligament laxity which makes them extra flexible at their joints but having too much movement at joints can make a person unstable and it can cause difficulty with early skills like crawling and standing. Children with Ds can have shorter arms and legs which can cause difficulties with balance and movement. In addition there are sensory processing deficits in all the sensory systems as well as impaired ability to take in and register sensory input. Some children can present as clumsy, easily distracted, have poor listening and attention skills, seem to play” too rough” or dislike certain noises or textures and using a sensory integrative approach in physiotherapy is beneficial to these children. Physiotherapy aims to address any developmental problems that arise, to improve muscle strength and to increase tone in order to help a child maximize their function. It also aims to prevent poor compensatory movement patterns that can cause problems later in life. The goal of Physiotherapy is to enable an individual to achieve maximal functional independence for improved quality of life regardless of a person’s age or ability. For further inquiries contact adminsecretary@downsyndromekerry.ie.

Down Syndrome Kerry

Counselling

DSK can arrange to provide member families with psychological support if required.

All appointments are made in the strictest of confidence.

Contact Shirley on 087 0606135.

Down Syndrome Kerry

Parent Link

Parent Link is a voluntary support and information service for new parents of babies with Down syndrome in Kerry and the surrounding areas.

The service is led by parents of children with Down syndrome who are trained in Parent Link by Down Syndrome Ireland.

As parents, they are familiar with the feelings and reactions of having a child with Down syndrome in the family.
Parent Pack

Courses:

Lámh

Lámh is the manual sign system used by children and adults with intellectual disability and communication needs in Ireland. Lámh was originally developed in the early 1980s in order to have a unified, standardised, Irish-based approach to signing for those with intellectual disabilities and communication needs.

Down Syndrome Kerry
Courses:

Numicon

Numicon is a distinctive multi-sensory approach to children's mathematical learning that emphasises three key aspects of doing mathematics:
• Communicating mathematically
• Exploring relationships
• Solving problems in everyday life experiences (generalising)

Please contact Shirley on 087/0606135 for the next available courses

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Down Syndrome Kerry