When: Tuesday 18th November
Time: 7-8pm
Online via Zoom
We are delighted to welcome back Will Black, SDS Development Coordinator at Glasgow Centre for Inclusive Living (GCIL). At this session, we will learn about Self Directed Support, have an open conversation around the pitfalls of this, and hear some tips to understand.
GCIL is a disabled peoples organisation, they provide a range of support to those living in Glasgow, East Dunbartonshire, South Lanarkshire and North Lanarkshire. Their Support services offer information and advice in relation to all aspects of Social Care predominantly centred around Self Directed Support, they assist individuals and families to understand their rights & responsibilities as well as to undertake these. They can also offer training and guidance on a variety of subjects in relation to social care.
When: Wednesday 12th November
We are delighted to be welcoming back Maggie Woodhouse, Optometrist and Senior Lecturer at the School of Optometry & Vision Sciences at Cardiff University. For almost 40 years, Maggie’s main interests have been visual development and the provision of eye care for people with learning disabilities, particularly children with Down’s syndrome.
Maggie’s research has changed practice in eye care and she has been awarded both an OBE and a Queen’s Anniversary Award. Maggie and her colleagues run a Special Assessment Clinic for people with disabilities.
At this session, Maggie will speak about her role, sharing her knowledge and expertise about visual development and eye care for children with Down’s syndrome and refer to research on this. Time will be given at the end for Maggie to answer any questions you may have.
When: Tuesday 28th October
Alyson Baillie is a Community Infant Feeding Support Nurse with NHS Ayrshire and Arran. Alyson graduated with a BA Hons in Nursing Studies from Caledonia University and she is a Breastfeeding Peer Supporter with the Breastfeeding Network. Alyson has supported women with feeding their babies for 10 years. This session will cover the benefits of breastfeeding, common difficulties, methods of feeding your baby, and support available.
When: Tuesday 7th October
CALL Scotland works with schools to help children and young people with additional support needs to access the curriculum and communication through assistive technologies.
During this practical session, Claire Harrison, Assistive Technology & Complex Needs Teacher at CALL Scotland, will demonstrate some of the fantastic built-in accessibility tools that are available on all iPads as well as show some apps that are useful for supporting early literacy and numeracy skills. There will also be an opportunity to find out more about the work of CALL Scotland.
When: Thursday 11th September
Come and join Debbie Campbell from our Family Support Team for an Annual Health Checks Workshop. Debbie will go over the resources that Down’s Syndrome Scotland have developed to support people who have Down’s syndrome, their parents/carers and also the Health Professionals who will be delivering the Annual Health Checks.
The Annual Health Checks are a very important step to improving health outcomes for people with Down’s syndrome and it is important that families feel confident about content, delivery and aftercare.
When: Wednesday 3rd September
Online via Zoom Come and join Debbie Campbell from our Family Support Team and Lesley McGregor, Learning Disability Nurse for a Q&A session on Adult Health. Lesley runs the Down’s Syndrome clinic in Perth and has a wealth of experience supporting adults who have Down’s syndrome with their health.
When: Wednesday 11th June
Kirsteen Grieve is a Specialist Independent Paediatric Physiotherapist with extensive experience in developmental paediatrics. After 14 years working within both the NHS as well as the third sector both in the UK and New Zealand, Kirsteen founded her private practice – Movement Physiotherapy – in 2012. She has continued to develop her clinical skills in line with new and advancing clinical techniques to provide modern and innovative approaches to managing the wide-ranging needs of the children she works with. Kirsteen runs sessions from her homely and welcoming space ‘The Bothy’ just outside Linlithgow and provides both regular and intensive physiotherapy sessions to children and their families from all over Scotland and beyond! The aim with each family is to push the boundaries to discover what is possible!
Kirsteen’s session will cover typical development of a child with Down’s Syndrome and give practical ideas and suggestions on how to address some of the common physical challenges that these children face. The session will be very interactive and will provide demonstrations of how to self-assess and evaluate your child at home, know when to seek additional help, and tips on how to progress gross motor skills. Questions are welcome in advance and during/after the session.
Bookings for this event have now closed.
When: Wednesday 20th August
Come and join Karen Philip from our Family Support Team and Katy Lironi, Development Lead and Makaton Tutor from our Achieving Better Communication (ABC) Team for a Q&A session – a chance to gain information and ask any questions you may have about your child’s early years development and communication from birth to up to 3 years old.
When: Wednesday 4th June
Karen McGuigan is the founder of Maths for Life Limited who support children and young adults with additional support needs to engage with and enjoy learning maths. The programme also helps parents/carers and education professionals to have the tools and resources to support using the programme within the home or school/college setting.
At this session Karen will speak about how the Maths for Life Programme came about, how it works to support the complete age spectrum of students, from pre-school and onwards onto further education/college and how the programme incorporates technology to support maths learning. It is a differentiated and accessible programme aimed at supporting individuals who may have difficulties with the national curriculum structure and timescales and offers a different approach to learning essential maths skills.
When: Friday 13th June
Time: 12.30-1.30pm
Dr Tamlyn Watermeyer is a Cognitive Neuropsychologist — this means she is interested in how the brain supports memory and thinking abilities. Her work focuses on understanding how and why these abilities change over time, especially in people who are at higher risk of developing dementia, like those with Down’s syndrome. She currently holds an NIHR-Alzheimer’s Society Dementia fellowship and is based at Northumbria University at Newcastle and has an honorary fellowship with Edinburgh Dementia Prevention, University of Edinburgh. She will present a summary of her fellowship work aimed at improving access to brain health and dementia research care opportunities in the North of the UK by improving the tests to assess memory and thinking in all ages of people with Down’s syndrome.
As they age, people with Down’s syndrome are at-risk for developing Alzheimer’s, a form of dementia. Despite this, they are often left out of research studies of dementia, in large part because our current tests simply don’t work well enough for this group. The RAD Study (Revolutionising Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment in Down’s syndrome) is about changing that by developing tests of the future. In this project, we’re working with adults with Down’s syndrome (aged 18 years and older) and their caregivers to develop fairer, more accurate ways of detecting early memory and thinking changes linked to Alzheimer’s. We’re testing a new kinds of memory tasks, that are like games and that don’t rely on language or education (a big problem of existing tests), and which have already shown promise in detecting Alzheimer’s much earlier in other groups. Crucially, we’re not just testing what works — we’re asking what works for you? Participants are helping us shape and improve the study itself: what feels accessible, what doesn’t, and how we can make this research more inclusive and empowering for all ages of people with Down’s syndrome. The RAD Study isn’t just about improving science. It’s about shifting who gets seen, heard, and supported when it comes to brain health — and paving the way for future research and care that includes everyone from the very beginning of their brain health journey.