Down Syndrome is a chromosomal condition in newborns in which most commonly there is an additional copy of chromosome 21 in the child’s DNA. (NHS 2015) This disability may include an intellectual delay, variable learning disabilities, and often a very certain physical appearance. They mostly share the same physical features with their parents but are also recorded to have a broad, flat face with eyes slanting upwards and a small nose. (NHS 2015) Although a child with Down syndrome can do most things that other children can do, they might end up doing it later than most. One important thing that children with Down syndrome have difficulty with is early recognition of emotions through facial expressions, which plays a huge role in how a child interacts with others in a social situation. Social development is hugely important to a child’s overall development as it teaches the ability to socialize, to make friends and to overall becoming active in one’s community. When an individual is undeveloped in the ability to perceive how another is feeling it makes it harder to understand when someone is upset or pick up on the mood for a certain situation, making it harder to develop socially. Luckily for children with Down syndrome this difficulty is normally subtler than it is for children with other disabilities and can actually be due to developmental environment or neurological differences. Based on this subtlety teenagers and adults with down syndrome easily enhance their social inclusion as they have grown in order to better recognize emotions through expression and interactions. (Buckley, Bird & Sacks 2002)
