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DOWN SYNDROME IRELAND has met with the Minister for Education to ask for recognition that Down Syndrome is a complex and enduring disorder which means children with the syndrome require extra resources in school.
A spokesperson from the organisation said that there was “a robust exchange of views” at the meeting yesterday, and that Minister Ruairí Quinn promised to consider the issue and get back to Down Syndrome Ireland before the Dáil recess.
She said that they were looking for all children with Down Syndrome to be recognised as having complex and enduring needs. The Minister didn’t give a ‘yes or a no’ on this, but did commit to examining the issue and getting back to DSI before the Dáil’s recess, which the group is happy with.
They are hoping for a positive result, as DSI feel that recognising this would have a major impact on children when it comes to resource teaching and special needs assistants in the classroom.
They want this recognition to be dealt with effectively, and for schools to be given extra resources for all children with Down Syndrome – not just children who fall into the “moderate” category for intellectual disabilities.
DSI believes it is unfair to base resource teacher allocation on intellectual disability alone, as children with Down Syndrome also experience speech and language difficulties, for example, among other issues.
Education Officer for Down Syndrome Ireland, Patricia Griffin, strongly condemned the NCSE cuts announced last week, describing them as “utterly unacceptable”.
Yesterday, the Education Minister rowed back on the cuts.
Griffin noted last week that though staff numbers were not being reduced, pupil numbers have increased by approximately 10 per cent, and that there had been a 15 per cent cut in resources for special needs students last year.
Absolutely agree, my daughter has DS and attends a main stream school. She has benefited enormously from the help of her SNA, without her, mainstream school would be very difficult, and for the rest of her class. However, because of the many cuts, her resource hours have been cut back by 30mins a week and she often has to share these hours with other kids in her class who have learning difficulties. This government should immediately stop targeting the most vulnerable in society, grow a pair of balls and go after the people responsible for the state of the Irish economy.
Theyre too busy with the unborn to care about the born at all. If they arent @rsed helping women, why would they give a damn about people with Downs?
And what’s the prochoice answer to children with downs? Hhhhmmmm
I’m pro-choice and I have a sister with Down Syndrome. What exactly is your point Mr Jingles? By the way is there any chance of a picture and a real name? Or is this the way you troll?
My point is that many would be what can only be described as being done away with by many prochoicers if they had their way.
I may not have any in my family but I’ve hung around with one my entire life. And no I won’t. Couldnt be having poo and pictures stuck to my property.
Ill assume by your silence Damien you’ve been put firmly in your box.
Nope. I generally don’t respond to people who post anonymously.
I really hope he listens. There are a lot of anomalies in the system. Every child with ASD gets the maximum number of resource teaching hours regardless of their level of intellectual functioning. I cannot understand how every child with down syndrome does not get the same treatment under the educational system. It seems to me that there is a lot of unfair aspects to the system of resource teaching.
Children with speech & language disorder get resource hours. Once given, those hours are not reviewed even if the child’s speech disorder is successfully treated by speech therapy. Effectively, those children who may have had speech difficulties at 5 or 6 years of age but who no longer have these difficulties at say, 9 or 10 years of age still get resource teaching hours even though they no longer have speech problems.
Yet children with Down syndrome who do have a life long condition don’t get resource teaching hours if they happen to have a mild intellectual disability instead of a moderate intellectual disability.
Who makes the decisions about who gets resource hours and how many hours they get?
Not only that but if another child had the same level of speech as my son they would be guaranteed resource hours yet my son isn’t because he has Down Syndrome.
My son was diagnosed with a severe speech and language disorder, in fact he was in the 1st percentile for expressive, receptive and phonological speech. His resource hours have been cut, yes he is improving but if those hours were taken from him he would regress. So even though he may have little difficulty now, without constant support he will regress, just because his speech has improve doesn’t mean it translates onto paper it goes deeper than verbal sounds. So these kids that are 9-10 and present with little difficulty may regress without resource hours.
So please don’t pick on other kids who have difficulties we should all stick together.
Not picking at all, but i am highlighting the unfairness in the current system. We need to stick together and the protests today highlight that.
My daughter was born at 26 weeks. She has hydrocephalus with a shunt, epilepsy, and a severe speech and language delay for which she receives little or no SLT. She has all the features of autism but is not diagnosed autistic because these features were caused by a brain injury, so therefore doesn’t qualify for July provision. If I lied and got an autism diagnosis years ago she would qualify for July provision now, but why should I have to lie my way into labeling my daughter to get a few stupid weeks from them? I’m sick of it. You’re nothing these days if your not autistic!
There are approximately 200 children with Down syndrome who DO NOT receive Resource Hours. Down syndrome is not recognised by the Dept of Education as a ” Low Incidence Disability” hence kids with Down syndrome have to have a second disability in order to qualify for Resource Hours. the majority of children with Down syndrome do receive Resource Hours by having a second disability, but again there are approx 200 children with Down syndrome that do not. A “Specific Speech and Language Disorder” is a disability on the List, all kids with Down syndrome have a Speech and Language Disorder, hence one would think they would all qualify for Resource Hours… They do not, the Dept. of Education require kids who qualify for Resource Hours by having a Specific Speech and Language Disorder to also have an average IQ, thus eliminating every child with Down syndrome . This was the reason that Down Syndrome Ireland met the Minister for Education about on Tuesday evening.
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