21 Plus

21 Plus is a charity which supports families who have a child with Down’s Syndrome. The charity is run by 3 mothers who each have a child with Down's Syndrome. The aim of the group is to encourage children and young people with Down’s Syndrome to achieve their potential and increase access to opportunities as well as offering a wide range of support and education to families.

The charity has gone from strength to strength over the past 10 years, offering activities that have really made a difference to people. There is a weekly speech and language group for pre-school children called "Talk Time" The group aims to improve the communication skills of the children by targeting their specific speech and language needs and teaching the children and their families to use Makaton. This training is vital in aiding their communication skills.

There is a summer speech and language camp for older children, the main focus of which is to offer intensive, specialist speech and language input to school-aged children. The charity also offers bespoke training sessions in Numicon and sensory processing disorder workshops.

Furthermore, an annual education conference on the effective inclusion of children with Down's Syndrome into school settings is held. These conferences are suitable for all staff involved in teaching and supporting pupils with Down’s Syndrome.

More recently the charity has developed a school support service which allows them to directly help schools to include these children successfully in all areas of school life.