Down Syndrome

Dr. John Langdon Down, born in 1828 and died in 1896, was the medical superintendent of the Royal Earlswood Asylum for Idiots in London. He studied what he termed Mongolian idiocy which was based on the measurements of the head and palate. This became a racial stereotype in that Asian descendants were called Mongoloids, but they are not directly related to Mongolian idiocy, now termed Down syndrome or Trisomy 21 (Ward, 2004).

More than six thousand babies with Down syndrome are born in the United States each year. Down syndrome occurs in all races, ethnic groups, socioeconomic classes, and nationalities. Genetics play a major role in Down syndrome. A person without Down syndrome has forty-six chromosomes, while a person with Down syndrome has forty-seven. This results from cell division, which is how the chromosomes divide between the sperm and egg, usually twenty-three for each. Down syndrome is determined by looking at a karyotype or a picture of chromosomes after cell division is complete. Chromosomes can be taken through amniotic fluid, usually done by an amniocentesis. Down syndrome is characterized by looking at the twenty-first chromosome which has three chromosomes instead of two, thus called Trisomy 21 (Stray-Gundersen, 1995). Persons with Down syndrome have many different physical characteristics, such as low muscle tone, small facial features, a protruding tongue, smaller head circumference, short stature, and small, webbed hands and feet.

My research is based on the social-conflict theory because society fears what they do not understand, therefore, conflict arises within the socialization of a person with Down syndrome. My hypothesis is that society has a negative perspective of individuals with Down syndrome. For my research, I distributed twenty open-ended questionnaires to ten males and ten females of an all Caucasian population. The total population had ages ranging from twenty years to sixty years. Approximately one-third of the population studied came from Peoria, Illinois. Close to one-third of the population resided in cities south of Peoria, Illinois and roughly another third of the population I chose lived just north of Peoria, Illinois. The majority of my subjects had some college education, while a portion had a high school diploma and a few had a college degree. Annual household incomes ranged from zero to twenty-five thousand dollars to more than sixty-five thousand dollars with the majority earning over sixty-five thousands dollars a year. Of the twenty subjects, there were various religions reported, such as Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian, and Lutheran, nondenominational Christian. I did not find any correlations between the residence, education, income, or religion of my subjects and Down Syndrome. Over half of the subjects studied knew one or more persons with Sown syndrome, while seven said they did not know anyone with Down syndrome.

I did discover that the majority of females tend to be more passive and positive about Down syndrome, whereas most of the males had more realistically, yet negative comments related to Down syndrome. Age did play a factor in my research in that the subjects, age twenty to forty-five, have less knowledge about Down syndrome. Eleven people said that the maternal age of a newborn with Down syndrome is over thirty-five years. I found that the more personal experience an individual has with Down syndrome, the more knowledge they have about this defect. The frequency of babies born with Down syndrome is based on the mother’s age at delivery. At the age of twenty-two, the estimated risk is 1/1065. At the age of thirty-five, the risk is 1/274. This does not mean that only women thirty-five and older have babies with Down syndrome. In fact, seventy percent of babies with Down syndrome are born to mothers under thirty-five. This is because women under age thirty-five have more babies than women over thirty-five (Stray-Gundersen).

Fourteen individuals reported that a person with Down syndrome should live with their family because the family is where the support and love are. On the other hand, six of the fourteen also stated only if the parents give the person with Down syndrome love, or only if at all possible, or only if the parents want to care for the child with Down syndrome. Overall, the results were eighteen out of twenty people surveyed did not feel that a person with Down syndrome could live independently.

I asked all twenty subjects if they had heard of any stereotypes related to Down syndrome. Nine, who were mostly females, said no to this question. Eleven persons gave detailed stereotypes and discriminating words that refer to Down syndrome individuals, such as stupid, retarded, handicap, dumb, ugly, weird, slow, mongoloid, and dependent. They also stated that they all look alike, they have smaller brains, and they have shorter life spans. More than half of the subjects said that a person with Down syndrome is equal to them instead of slower. Individuals with Down syndrome have mental retardation. This means that they learn slower than the average person. Intelligence is measured by using standardized tests that result in a score often computed into a measurement called an intelligence quotient or IQ. Among the general population, there is a wide range of measured intelligence. 95 percent of the population have a normal intelligence with IQs ranging from 70-130. Two and a half percent of the population have superior intelligence with IQs ranging over 130. And two and a half percent have an IQ of less than 70 or below the normal intelligence. There are three different degrees of mental retardation. A person with severe mental retardation has an IQ range of 25-40. Moderate mental retardation means his IQ si between 40-55 and mild mental retardation has an IQ that falls in the 55-70 range. Most people with Down syndrome score in the moderate to mild range of intelligence (Buckley,2004).

I asked the subjects how they feel about working with a person with Down syndrome. My results were fairly equal in both positive and negative aspects. Eleven subjects stated they would be fine, while nine explained that it would be alright as long as the person with Down syndrome is capable of performing the job requirements. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities, such as Down syndrome, and operates that same as other federal laws that forbid racial, religious, age, and sex discrimination. The ADA declares that no employer can discriminate against a qualified individual solely because of a disability. This does not mean that employers are required to hire people with disabilities

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