See and Learn offers evidence-based activities, guidance and support to help young children with Down syndrome improve their speech, language, reading and numeracy skills. Connect with families and professionals from around the world for support and guidance, or just for a chat. Around age 10, if not hopefully way before, parents with a child with Down syndrome make the transition from therapy to sports and recreation; from aquatic therapy to swimming; from hippotherapy to horseback riding.
It was readily apparent from Emmanuel's first golf range practice that he had an innate ability to swing a golf club. It is in his genes. He is at a disadvantage with his typically developing peers that his father has never wielded a golf club in his life.
Bishop, V. Down Syndrome Research and Practice , 12 3 , In our house there is a major philosophical schism: my wife, Gloria, bless her soul, thinks that Emmanuel can be good at tennis. He has been to four tennis camps and still cannot hit a tennis ball for the life of him, but he never misses a golf swing. Furthermore, Emmanuel cannot bounce a basketball or catch a baseball.
The moral of the story is to follow your child's sports' strengths, ability and interests. This is diametrically opposed to the therapeutic model of remediating weaknesses we were drilled at during Early Intervention, which I consider myself now cured of. The purpose of physical therapy is not to accelerate the acquisition of gross motor skills in Down syndrome, but rather to prevent compensatory movement patterns [ 1 ] , but we do have two recent evidence-based therapies,.
For my wife, it is a matter of finding that elusive adapted teaching method for Emmanuel to learn how to hit that pesky tennis ball; for me, after Emmanuel hits two large baskets at the golf range and asks for a third bucket, why bother with tennis or basketball or baseball? We did flashcards and Emmanuel was an early sight-reader [ 4 ] - sight-reading is the single most significant intervention for pre-school age children with Down syndrome - my son had a set of sports flash cards, images of bowling balls and softballs and volleyballs, etc.
