Down Syndrome Case Study: Oliver's Development & Nurture's Influence

This case study examines Oliver's development, a baby with Down's syndrome, highlighting the significant role of nurture in mitigating the effects of the genetic disorder. Despite Down syndrome being a chromosomal abnormality, early interventions such as regular physiotherapy and speech language pathology sessions are crucial in maximizing Oliver's cognitive, physical, and social development. Physiotherapy aids in improving motor skills and pre-crawling activities, while speech therapy focuses on language acquisition and clarity. The case emphasizes that with proper medical support and nurturing, the impact of Down syndrome can be significantly managed, allowing Oliver to reach his maximum potential.

Running head: OLIVER’S DEVELOPMENT: NURTURE’S INFLUENCE ON NATURE
OLIVER’S DEVELOPMENT: NURTURE’S INFLUENCE ON NATURE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

1OLIVER’S DEVELOPMENT: NURTURE’S INFLUENCE ON NATURE
An inborn genetic disorder, Down’ syndrome is a chromosomal abnormality caused
by an extra full or partial copy of the 21st chromosome, leading to intellectual disability,
reduced behavioral and neuro-cognitive development along with accelerated aging (Patterson
& Cabelof, 2013; Moran, 2013). The teratogens or destructive agents that cause Down’s
syndrome, crosses the placenta and affect the embryo during its developmental stages leading
to the congenital malformations and mutations. This teratogenicity can be linked with
alcohol, tobacco, oral contraceptives and so on (Hughes and Watson 2018) (Ray, et al. 2016).
Babies, born with Down’s syndrome are like any other normal baby neurologically,
are born with over a 100 billion neurons, all these neurons are interlinked via connections
known as synapses, and majority of these neural associations develop by the age of three.
Recent research has revealed that although these connections occur at early childhood, the
brain posses the ability to change constantly, by weakening or strengthening synapses
according to the environmental and physiological requirement, which is referred to
as neuroelasticity or neuroplasticity. Pruning of these synapses are highly influenced by
environmental factors which fundamentally indicates that proper nurturing of babies with
Down’s syndrome has a superior impact compared to the natural disability the child.
This case study highlights the story of Oliver, a baby with Down’s syndrome. A total
healthcare team is there to structure proper guidelines so that Oliver can achieve maximum
potential in cognitive, physical and social development. Regular physiotherapy sessions help
Oliver improve his motor dexterity along with upgrading his social skills. The physiotherapist
enlightens the parents along with instructing and demonstrating several ways to care for
Oliver. It is natural for children with Down’s syndrome to have developmental delays along
with intellectual disability but it has been proven that proper medical and supportive
interventions since early childhood can manage and rule against the natural disabilities by a
great margin (Karmiloff-Smith 2016). Regular physiotherapy sessions have motivated Oliver

2OLIVER’S DEVELOPMENT: NURTURE’S INFLUENCE ON NATURE
into kneeling on firm surface, extending arms to grab toys, strengthening of his shoulders,
kicking legs in the air while lying on the stomach and other pre-crawling activities. With the
help of physiotherapy, he can now pivot his upper body and this side turning of trunk will
gradually help him in sitting up. He has already grown out of his tumbler chair and enjoys
sitting his bumbo chair (Sclare 2017) although he keeps extending his hand and tries getting
out of it. He likes sitting on his high chair and eating, has already developed various tastes,
and enjoys eating blended zucchini. He is even able to grab a spoon, put it in his mouth, and
scrape out the food off it. Oliver is developing at a good rate and the team of special
caregivers is there by him to simply support him and give him the right exposures, so that he
can develop at his maximum potential. A speech language pathologist helps Oliver with
developing his language, acquiring the signals, acquisition of speech and fine-tuning the way
of speaking so that proper speech delivery and clarity is achieved (Wild 2018).
Therefore, it can be concluded that even though Down’s syndrome is a natural
disorder, recent developmental research along with the use of proper guidelines and medical
interventions, which nurture the child during the early days years can highly manage and
minimize the effects of Down’s syndrome over the lifetime.

3OLIVER’S DEVELOPMENT: NURTURE’S INFLUENCE ON NATURE
References
Hughes, T. and Watson, S.L., 2018. Sibling Relationships in Families of Children With
Autism Spectrum Disorder, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, and Down Syndrome: A
Comparison Study. Journal on Developmental Disabilities, 23(2), pp.117-117.
Karmiloff-Smith, A., Al-Janabi, T., D'Souza, H., Groet, J., Massand, E., Mok, K., Startin, C.,
Fisher, E., Hardy, J., Nizetic, D. and Tybulewicz, V., 2016. The importance of understanding
individual differences in Down syndrome. F1000Research, 5.
Moran, J., 2013. Aging and Down syndrome. A Health & Well-Being Guidebook.
Patterson, D. and Cabelof, D.C., 2013. Down syndrome as a model of DNA polymerase beta
haploinsufficiency and accelerated aging. Mechanisms of ageing and development, 133(4),
pp.133-137.
Ray, A., Hong, C.S., Feingold, E., Ghosh, P., Ghosh, P., Bhaumik, P., Dey, S. and Ghosh, S.,
2016. Maternal telomere length and risk of Down syndrome: epidemiological impact of
smokeless chewing tobacco and oral contraceptive on segregation of chromosome 21. Public
health genomics, 19(1), pp.11-18.
Sclare, J., Thomson, J.M., Costello, C., Nolan, P.B., Dotsey, M.A. and Dingler, N.E., KIDS
II Inc, 2017. Booster seat with stowable tray and/or stowable securing strap. U.S. Patent
9,603,464.
Wild, A., Vorperian, H.K., Kent, R.D., Bolt, D.M. and Austin, D., 2018. Single-word speech
intelligibility in children and adults with down syndrome. American journal of speech-
language pathology, 27(1), pp.222-236.