Down Syndrome
- Is a common genetic disorder causing developmental disability (Pinto & Schub, 2010)
- Is also a heterogenous disorder where children can express varying levels of devlopmental disability (Pinto & Schub, 2010).
- Causes: Mothers having children at increasing ages eg. the risk of having a child with down syndrome is 1 in 30 for a women who is 45 years old (Pinto & Schub, 2010).
- Physical symptoms:slanted eyes, flat facial features, deep crease in the palmar surface of the hand, small ears and neck, protruding tongue (Pinto & Schub, 2010).
- More presenting symptoms: Delays in speech (Pinto & Schub, 2010).
- Children with Down syndrome are 12x more likely to contract or develop infectious diseases such as pneumonia (Pinto & Schub, 2010)
- Approximately 1in 800 live births will be diagnosed with Down Syndrome in the US (Pinto & Schub, 2010)
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