The Ups of Downs
THE UPS OF DOWNS PROVIDE SPEECH AND LANGUAGE THERAPY
The Ups of Downs will use the money to help 50 children in Leamington and the surrounding area develop their communication skills, in turn enabling them to build relationships and share their wishes, needs and aspirations.
Established in 2006, The Ups of Downs works with parents and carers, providing the opportunity for parents to understand more about Down syndrome and how best to support their children.
Teaching the youngsters how to communicate is a key objective for the pre-school group which leads a range of fun activities to promote and encourage development across a range of skills including improving working memory, communication, early numeracy and literacy, concentration and social skills.
Parents too are shown activities which can be incorporated into everyday life at home to support their child’s development.
Parents are invited to regular training events which are also open to the professionals who work with members, including teachers, occupational therapists, portage workers and external specialist advisory teachers.
Nicola Enoch, of The Ups of Downs, said the sessions, delivered by highly trained and experienced speech and language therapy professionals, are very well attended and frequently attract excellent feedback.
She said: “We have always prioritised providing speech and language therapy to our members since it is so critical for a child to be able to communicate, to be able to be included at home and at nursery or school.
“We are extremely grateful to The WPH Charitable Trust for its very generous donation which ensures our members can access this specialist intervention. Being able to communicate is a skill many take for granted. With support our children and young people can make tremendous progress and we’re delighted to ensure they have the opportunity to make such progress.”
