Essay on Living With Down Syndrome

As a child, Down syndrome was a part of my everyday life. I was watched after every day for the first ten years of my life by a women who was also looking after her sister who had Down syndrome. To me it was nothing unusual. It wasn’t until about eighth grade that I realized that to other people it wasn’t normal, it had a negative connotation. Growing up around a person who has Down syndrome made me see things differently than others. Once I realized not everyone else’s perspectives were the same as mine I became really aware of how others treated and reacted to people with Down syndrome. Its years later and I came across a story told by a women named Bethany Van Delft about Down syndrome.

The aim of this paper is to show the need for services and education for both the public and parents of children with Down syndrome to assist in the transitioning into independent adult living.

Babies can be screened for Down syndrome as part of prenatal care; however, these screenings don’t tell you if the baby has Down syndrome, it can only tell you how likely the baby is to have it. This first test is called the first trimester combined test. This includes blood tests and an ultrasound on the baby. Based on these two tests and age a doctor can try to estimate the likelihood of a baby having Down syndrome. If results come back positive and people think their kids has a great chance of having this genetic disorder they can try to have a few more tests done. Once the baby is born they first see if the baby has an visual symptoms. Appearance is a big key to knowing if a baby has Down syndrome right away when it is born. However, at times babies can have appearances that resemble Down syndrome even if they don’t have it so a test is done called a chromosomal karyotype which analyzes the child’s chromosomes. Once diagnosed a child should start treatment as soon as possible if they want to see more positive effects of the treatments. Usually doctors can refer patients to special early intervention programs in the area. These programs specialize in helping the diagnosed kids with developing different skills like: social, language and motor skills. Most kids will end up having a team of experts on their side. This would be a

I spent my evenings researching how to raise a child with Down syndrome and there were a lot of facts that helped guide me. One very important advice was to never spoil my child for spoiling my child can have negative consequences such as my other child becoming jealous and my child with Down syndrome not able to develop independence and self esteem (Selikowitz, M., 2008). It is also recommended to involve the class teacher as much as possible, speaking to the teacher to request if he or she would be willing to speak positively about disabilities, which may provide a mutual support among classmates (Selikowitz, M.,

In most cases, the doctor will be able to recognize if the child has Down syndrome right after birth. They are mostly able to tell by the child’s appreance. There are certain features that some, but not all Down syndrome children have.

Down syndrome is a birth defect caused by a genetic disorder that affects 350,000 people in the United States. It is caused by abnormalities in the genes and is not inherited, meaning that parents do not pass this onto their children. Genetics is the study of heredity or how certain traits are passed from parents to their children. Genes are the basic unit of heredity. Cells are the building blocks of your body and each one of us has more than 100 trillion cells. Our genes are located in chromosomes. Each cell in your body contains 46 chromosomes or 23 pairs. In a person with Down syndrome, there are 47 chromosomes. In 1956, a French researcher named Jerome Lejeune used a new powerful microscope to view human strands of DNA. DNA is what

Down Syndrome is a chromosomal condition related to chromosome 21. It affects 1 in 800 to 1 in 1000 born infants. People who have Down Syndrome have learning difficulties, mental retardation, a different facial appearance, and poor muscle tone (hypotonia) in infancy.

Down syndrome is a genetic disorder in which a person is born with an extra copy of chromosome 21. There are three genetic variations that cause Down syndrome: Trisomy 21, Mosaic Trisomy 21 or Translocation Trisomy 21. There are many ways in which theses disorders affect the body.  Trisomy 21 occurs when an egg or sperm comes in with an extra copy of chromosome 21, then, once an embryo is formed and starts to develop, the chromosome is replicated in every single cell of the embryo. Trisomy 21 is the most common type of Down syndrome. About 92% of Down syndrome patients have this type. People with Trisomy usually have physical problems.

Trisomy 21(Down Syndrome) is one of the most common types of chromosomal mutation. First published by John Langdon Down in 1866 and associated with chromosomes in 1959 by Jerome Lejeune, this mutation has affected thousands of infants around the world. The main cause for Down Syndrome is the formation of a 2 chromosome coming together in addition to another that does not belong. This produces extra genetic material. This occurs in the 21st chromosome of a human karyotype and this causes the newborn to have 47 chromosomes instead of the normal 46 chromosomes. So when the egg and the sperm come together there is an uneven amount of chromosomes coming from each parent.

Children are our future; our future scientists, doctors, teachers, president and so much more. It is hard not to notice the number of young parents nowadays that have children. the average age range for mothers giving birth is 20-34. With the current up rise of babies being born to young mothers, I could not help but think about how age plays a factor into birth effects. Down syndrome is the most common single cause of human birth defects. The most common form of Down syndrome is known as trisomy 21, a genetic condition where individuals have 47 chromosomes in each cell instead of 46. Trisomy 21 is caused by an error in cell division called nondisjunction, which leaves a sperm or egg cell with an extra copy of chromosome 21 before or at conception.

Down syndrome is a genetic defect attributed to an abnormality of the human chromosome 21. The National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS), a national advocate organization for the value, acceptance and inclusion of people with Down syndrome, notes that modern research has successfully identified three types of Down syndrome. The NDSS reports that Nondisjunction Trisomy 21, in which there are three copies of chromosome 21 instead of two, is the most common type of Down syndrome. Prior to or at the point of conception, a pair of 21st chromosomes in either the

mother could have a Down Syndrome baby even though there was never any sign of

I chose to read the autobiography by Jason Kingsley and Mitchell Levitz called Count on us, growing up with Down syndrome. My own educational background tells me that Down syndrome occurs to a person when they have an extra twenty-first chromosome expressed in their gene sequence. The extra chromosome can cause muscles to not fully develop along with degraded mental capacity. Down syndrome is usually diagnosed at birth and in the case of Jason and Mitchell it was. There was and still is a negative stigma with Down syndrome but do to recent legislation and stories like this autobiography, we are more aware of how people can still function and have a high quality of life with this disability.

Many people think that a person who has Down syndrome doesn’t live a normal life. Although they do have to work harder at some things, they can do most things that everyone else can do. Some have more issues than others. People with Down syndrome face obstacles such as physical and behavioral abnormalities, health issues, working, and social development skills, but there are different ways we can help.

grown to understand Down syndrome and other disabilities in a different light, seeing how many