FRA was delighted this weekend to host Dr. Marie Channell and her team Caitlyn Boni and Lauren Siragusa to participate in their study on Spoken Language Development in Down syndrome! Their study is a part of their focus on Supporting Down syndrome through research at the University of Illinois. Their mission is to “support individuals with development disabilities and their families through collaborative research between the Development in Neurogenetic Disorders (DND) lab and the Intellectual Disabilities Communication Lab (IDCL).

Dr. Marie Channell leads the IDCL and “aims to better understand how individuals with different types of intellectual disability learn to communicate to identify strategies for supporting their social and academic success”. While Dr. Channell and her team continue to learn and research what best supports communication throughout the school years and into adulthood, they conduct research such as they did this weekend at FRA to learn how to customize interventions to best support each individual with Down syndrome at different ages and stages of their lives. With local children and parents participating this weekend, they were able to add to that research through conducting child and parent study sessions.

We are very grateful to our families who have taken part in helping educate and add to research that will allow more access and knowledge on communication with the Down syndrome population. We are also very appreciative to have FRA been chosen to be part of this research study, as we maintain our mission every day to further the education, knowledge and resources for those in need of support with Down syndrome and any other disAbility! Thank you to all that participated and all that continue to research and support our community!