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.

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