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Getting started

See and Learn includes three pathways: speech, language and reading, and numbers. Each pathway includes a series of steps. Each step includes guidance and activities designed to develop specific skills and knowledge at a particular stage of development.

Coming soon

See and Learn Progress Tracker

Our online progress tracker is coming soon.

Use it to monitor and support your child's development, with advice on activities and strategies to promote development, and guidance on which See and Learn steps may be able to help.

Identifying where to start

To get started with See and Learn, you should assess your child's current skills to identify which step in each pathway they may be ready for. Information about when to start is provided on the page for each step in each pathway on this web site.

The Stages in Development diagram identifies important milestones in children's communication, speech, language and number skills development, alongside approximate ages for when these milestones may be met.

If you select the See and Learn Steps tab you will see how steps in the See and Learn pathways approximately map to developmental stages.

Please note: Rates of progress vary for all children. Rates of progress tend to vary more for children with Down syndrome - particularly for those children with additional and more complex needs. Therefore, while we can estimate ages at which children may be ready for certain teaching activities, these ages are only approximate. Please refer to the "when to start" information for each step for more precise guidance.

See and Learn can be used from around 6 months of age - starting with the speech pathway. For detailed information about the specific skills needed for each step, please follow the links to each pathway:

  • See and Learn Speech offers activities that infants with Down syndrome can start from around 6 months - beginning with learning to produce single sounds and progressing to saying whole words
  • See and Learn Language and Reading offers activities that children with Down syndrome can start from around 18 months - beginning with learning the meanings of first words and progressing to combining words in phrases and simple sentences
  • See and Learn Numbers offers activities that children with Down syndrome can start from around 3 or 4 years - beginning with learning to count and to understand the concepts of cardinality and equivalence for the numbers 1 to 10

For further advice about getting started please post a question in our See and Learn Community or contact us.

Speech
Language and Reading
Numbers
birth
Starting to learn speech sounds
Looking at faces
'coo' / babble 'conversations''
6 months
Starting to make some speech sounds and to babble
Learning that words have meaning
12 months
Beginning to combine sounds
Learning to say more early speech sounds
Learning some gestures and signs
18 months
Starting to say words
Using some signs and saying first words to communicate
2 years
Learning to say more difficult speech sounds
Learning to say more more words
Learning more words and to join 2 words when talking
Starting to read first sight words
3 years
Learning to say more difficult speech sounds
Learning to say more words, and to say them more clearly
Learning more words and starting to join 3 or 4 words together
Learning to read more sight words
Starting to learn number words
4 years
Learning to say more advanced speech sounds
Learning to say more words and to say them more clearly
Learning more words and starting to learn some grammar rules
Learning to read more sight words and some phrases
Starting to learn numerals 1-10, that numbers represent quantities, and to count objects
5 years
Continuing to learn speech sounds
Continuing to learn to say more words and improving clarity
Continuing to learn more words and some grammar rules
Continuing to learn more sight words and to read more phrases and simple sentences
Starting to count sets and understand cardinality and equivalence
6 years
Continuing to learn speech sounds
Continuing to learn to say more words and improving clarity
Continuing to learn new vocabulary and grammar
Continuing to learn more sight words and to read more sentences
Starting to order numbers, to count on, and starting to add and subtract