Down Syndrome Education International has hosted the annual meeting of the UK Down Syndrome Research Forum at The Sarah Duffen Centre in Portsmouth. Researchers from around the UK and elsewhere in Europe met over two days to discuss ongoing research projects and future directions.
The UK Down Syndrome Research Forum is an informal gathering of researchers interested in aspects of Down syndrome that meets annually. The Forum offers those active in the field the opportunity to discuss ongoing work and preliminary results, and to consider future research directions.
This year’s meeting covered a rich variety of issues of importance to people of all ages who are living with Down syndrome, including ageing and dementia, speech and stuttering, the interactions between short-term memory and speech processing skills, the relationships between verbal short-term memory, phonological awareness and new word learning, memory training interventions, social communication, vision, reading and language, intonation, signing and speaking, speech perception, and foreign language learning.
Researchers attended from Universities around the UK and elsewhere in Europe, including the University of Plymouth, University of Bristol, University of Reading, University of York, University of Portsmouth, University of Groningen, University of Oslo and University College London.
Researchers at Down Syndrome Education International presented preliminary data from current studies exploring individual variation in reading progress in preschool and school age children, signing and speech development, and developmental trajectories in social communication and early indicators of autism-like behaviours.
A full report of the 2008 UK Down Syndrome Research Forum will appear in Down Syndrome Research and Practice.
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