Computers and Down syndrome : educational intervention in the home using computers for children with Down syndrome / Edwin Charles White.

Abstract

Early Intervention Programmes have changed forever the lifestyles of children with Down syndrome. Such children now face the challenge of being fully integrated into our Public School System. The present writer assumes the computer is a great tool that is able to be used in the home so that children with Down syndrome will be given a head start with computers, even before starting school, and also that such computer use provides an enrichment of experience to their education and life. Over the last few years there has been a great interest shown by parents of children with Down syndrome in just how computers may be helpful to the development of their children. The present study reports case studies of small children using a range of simple computer programmes, ’Programmes for Little Kids’, developed for use in the home with assistance from parents. Following a year of assessment, evaluating the children’s skills and needs, Individual Education Plans were made for each small child with Down syndrome and appropriate computer programmes were designed, distributed and evaluated. The children were often observed using the computer programmes and many values discussed that evolved from questionnaires that were completed by parents, before and after the programmes were used at various stages of the study. These evaluations provided a multitude of suggestions for improvements and future development of the programmes, resulting in specific changes in the design of the computer programmes for each individual child.