Kontakt 2007, 9(2):416-421 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2007.063

Down syndromeBiomedicine

Lenka Duchoslavová

Jihočeská univerzita v Českých Budějovicích, Zdravotně sociální fakulta, katedra sociální práce a sociální politiky

The Arc of East Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA

Down syndrome is a genetic anomaly exerting lifelong consequences. In 1866, an English physician John Langdon Down noticed that some of his mentally retarded patients share some similar characters and he described and summarized them into a new unit, which was later named after him Down syndrome. In 1959, a French genetic Lejeune discovered the fact that persons with Down syndrome have chromosome No. 21 in addition to the normal arrangement. Given the fact that in persons with Down syndrome there are three chromosomes instead of two ones, we speak about trisomia 21. Down syndrome is encountered in one of 130,000 deliveries. Children with Down syndrome achieve particular development stages later compared with the other children and thus, their behaviour does not correspond to their age and physical performance. They are able to communicate with other children very well and they are also able to adhere to rules. However, new situations are more difficult for them. The prognosis of children born with Down syndrome is very favourable. More than 90% of these children survive the first year of their life and about half of them live to the age of sixty. Particularly the early care is of a great importance, which exerts positive impacts on the whole child development and future life. Today, there are a number of organisations providing diverse services for families with handicapped children. Parents have unambiguously the most difficult task after the delivery of a child with Down syndrome. In this mentally tedious period, psychological advisory services are necessary, which help the parents face the situation and which indicate services available to these children. Depending on the age and degree of the child involvement, services are provided concerning the education, jobs, living in flats and free time. Today we are aware of the fact that the timely or early care for children with Down syndrome plays the principal role in their further development. A next very substantial assumption for the best development is a loving care in the family, i.e. assumption that the child will not be passed to the institutional care, which was a common practice in the past times, but that it will grow in home environment.

Keywords: Down syndrome; trisomia; chromosome; metal involvement; family

Received: August 13, 2007; Accepted: October 26, 2007; Published: December 21, 2007  Show citation