See and Learn

Here is the beautiful Ameliya learning language development using See and Learn. Olive and Ameliya are showing us how the programme is presented to young children using visual stimulation, verbal repetition and positive interaction.

This year, we aim to put a See and Learn pack in every participating pre-school in the country that has a child with Down syndrome attending and provide See and Learn packs to each of our 25 local branches.

We are also evaluating the impact of See and Learn on children with Down syndrome. That way, we can lobby the Department of Children and Youth Affairs to get See and Learn included in the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) for children with Down syndrome so that the programme is fully sustainable in the long term.

A parent’s perspective

“In the early days, our children’s comprehension is rarely reflected in their spoken communication; which leads to them being underestimated in terms of learning and potential, which unfortunately as we’ve seen in the past, impacts on their entire life. Most times, children with Down syndrome know the words and are trying to say them clearly, but it takes quite some time to perfect the pronunciation – so whilst Mum’s and Dad’s know the difference between ‘juice’ and ‘shoes’; others communicating with our kids might struggle.

“But thankfully, so much is changing.  Early intervention works.  See and Learn works – we’ve been using it at home for two years and see the results. It’s been life-changing,” says Mum Deirdre, whose son Ronan is 4.

The story so far…

Since September 2019, we have delivered See and Learn training across 15 sites to more than 600 parents and early years educators to support children in their language development.

We will bring See and Learn training to more parents and educators in 2020/2021, we will keep you posted when and how this may happen.