A comparison of mainstream and special education for teenagers with Down syndrome: implications for parents and teachers.

Full Abstract

This article presents data from a research study designed to compare the achievements of teenagers with Down syndrome educated in mainstream classrooms or in special education classrooms throughout their full-time education. Progress is reported for speech and language, literacy, socialisation, daily living skills and behaviour. For all the teenagers, there is evidence of progress with age on all the measures except for communication. Communication continued to improve through teenage years for the included children but not for those in special education classrooms. There were no significant differences in overall outcomes for daily living skills or socialisation. However, there were large significant gains in expressive language and literacy skills for those educated in mainstream classrooms. Teenagers educated in mainstream classrooms showed fewer behavioural difficulties. Further, comparison with data published by these authors in an earlier study, showed no improvements in school achievements in special education over a 13 year period in the UK (1986-1999).

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Buckley, Sue (S); Bird, Gillian (G); Sacks, Ben (B); Archer, Tamsin (T);

Affiliation: The Down Syndrome Educational Trust and University of Portsmouth, UK.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article

Journal: Down's syndrome, research and practice : the journal of the Sarah Duffen Centre / University of Portsmouth (Downs Syndr Res Pract), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Jun; vol 9 (issue 3) : pp 54-67

Dates: Created 2006/07/27; Completed 2006/08/29; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 16869376, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.