Trisomy 21: What We Can Learn from People with Down Syndrome

For a long time, it was assumed that a genetic disposition such as trisomy 21 enables predictions to be made about overall personality development. But who could have ever imagines that people with trisomy 21 (Down syndrome) would also be capable of earning a university degree?We have examined 1.294 people with trisomy 21. The results showed that people with trisomy 21 benefit more from abstract learning than their neurotypical counterparts and two-year-olds with the syndrome learn first to read and only then to speak - and they understand algebra better than arithmetic.Ignorance of neurodiversity inevitably leads to learning difficulties when learning at the same pace as others. This applies to autism and trisomy 21 to the same extent. That's why this book advocates the recognition of trisomy 21 as a variant in the spectrum of human neurodiversity.