I had a friend who used to volunteer at the Special Olympics, and she said that one problem she faced was horny male athletes–grown men who had not been properly socialized to handle sexuality, I’m guessing because parents/teachers erroneously considered them big kids.
Perhaps not just that. There is also a lot of misunderstanding, sometimes difficulty reading certain social cues etc. They have a developmental disability, it can extend to many areas. Also, people with Down syndrome can be very affectionate, which can be taken just a little too far.
But yes, I think sex ed is quite difficult for people with developmental disabilities, and in my experience there is room for improvement. Funny anecdote time:
I worked in a hotel, on a learning-and-working project for young people with developmental disabilities. I was checking in a couple, when S. bursts into the reception and interrupts me to say: “I need to ask an important question!” - “OK S., just let me help these people, and then I’ll have time to answer your question.” S. looks relieved, and says: “Oh good, because I really need to know how to finger a girl!” 
(Also: see the above anecdote for why a developmental disability does not make a person a child. I’ve never had an emergency how-to-finger-a-girl question from a child. Thankfully.)
Sort of a separate question, but how is his health? Many folks with Down Syndrome die quite young. Does anyone know if Chris Burke has a bad heart or lung problems? I do see he has reached 48 and I thought many, many Down Syndrome folks don’t make it into their 50’s.
“…or even higher than average…”?? I say ‘fantastical’, not just speculative.
Average is pretty stupid. Have you read YouTube comments?
I wouldn’t quite say that…Down’s folks have realitively good social/emotional development for someone with mental disabilities…but it’s not as good as someone without mental disability…they can be friendly and know how to interact etc but even a lot of the high functioning ones can and will do stuff like hug random strangers…
My friend’s daughter has Down Syndrome and seems perfectly “normal” to me. She’s very tiny so when I first met her I asked how old she was, thinking she’d say “9”, but she said “16.” She’s 17 now but looks like a 10 year old. Honestly, if you didn’t look at her eyes you wouldn’t even know she was Down’s. She recently achieved her Black Belt in Karate.
One time the teachers in our area went on strike and stopped extra-curriculars. I knew my friend’s kid was in Track & Field so I asked if the strike had affected her. My friend said “No, she’s in the Special Olympics so she’s not affected.” I thought “That’s funny, why would she be in the Special…oh right.”
Hmmmm…good point…(looks off into the distance, meditating…)
Why is Down’s Syndrome the only, uh, doubled chromosome disease you ever hear of? We’ve got 22 other chromosomes, why don’t people sometimes end up with extra copies of one of those?
Marketing.
I’m dead serious. There are plenty of other chromosomal abnormalities, including doubling of other chromosomes. But they don’t generally produce beautiful babies with chubby cheeks and winning smiles. Often, they don’t produce babies who can live very long at all.
Triploidy of other chroosomes does occur all the time but they don’t make it to birth or even out of the first trimester very often. At least 15% of all conceptions result in spontaneous abortions and most of them have chromosomal abnormalities. Of triploidies that make it to term the only one with near the frequency of Downs is Klinefelter Syndrome (XXY) and it is not all that often immediately obvious at birth. Trisomy 18 and 13 sometimes make it to birth but they typically don’t survive very long.
Rick Santorum’s daughter Bella has Edwards syndrome, which is trisomy 18, and there’s also Patau syndrome, which is trisomy 13. Unless those are mosaics, life expectancy is very brief if they even survive birth, usually days or weeks. 
There are some partial trisomy and translocation syndromes that cause varying levels of disability. One that comes to mind is IDIC-15, a partial duplication of the 15th chromosome. It causes autism-like symptoms and other developmental delays; my old hairdresser’s grandson had this, which is how I know about it.
There’s even a syndrome called mosaic tetraploidy, where some of the cells have double sets of all the chromosomes. :eek:
The sex chromosomes can be duplicated too. Women with Triple X syndrome have 3 X chromosomes, and AFAIK this usually doesn’t affect their health except that they are a bit taller than average and are usually infertile. Men with Klinefelter syndrome (XXY) are also tall, infertile, and often have reduced body hair and gynecomastia. The XYY syndrome in men used to be believed to be associated with criminal behavior, and this has since been disproven. Those men do have a tendency towards severe acne and infertility, and are also taller than average.
p.s. There’s also Turner syndrome, which is a woman with a single X chromosome. Many do not survive to birth, but the ones who do generally have a normal life expectancy, although they have a peculiar appearance, are shorter than average, often do not go through spontaneous puberty, and frequently have learning and social disabilities.
Just be be pedantic about Chief Pedants post, or simply add my +1 to his first paragraph, that he is perfectly correct in clearing up some definitions before language is promiscuosly abused–(mis)used–in the discussion now underway of his second paragraph.
Down Syndrome is a correct term for just what it is: a syndrome. The word is defined as a spectrum of symptoms. In this case, simply put, is that the syndrome we call Down comprises deficit of cognitive function. It is a sine qua non.
The rare cases of where a person with Trisomy 21 has normal cognition does not have Down Syndrome.
IOW, Whathesaid.
Huh, so there are a bunch of other trisomy problems – ignorance fought.
I guess all the ‘other’ duplications are worse, as in, more likely to kill the fetus/child, and so there aren’t enough people with them to form a ‘known to the general public’ group.
Actually I will disagree with you Leo. Quite strongly. Down Syndrome is not defined by cognitive impairment any more than it is defined by any other feature in isolation. It is not sine qua non and if you, or CP want to claim it is then I would ask you to provide a citation that supports such a claim. It is very commonly associated with such, is a typical feature of such, as are slanting eyes, a broad short skull, broad hands and short fingers. But it is not the defining feature.
If you showed any of my fellow pediatricians or a geneticist an individual with Trisomy 21 with slanting eyes, widely spaced nipples, bilateral simian creases, short fingers, low set ears, and low body tone and told them that the individual also had a normal range IQ I will guarantee you with absolute certainty that we would ALL say that that individual has Down Syndrome. No question whatsoever. Okay, they might first say “Really?” but once shown the test results they would without question say that the individual was a person with Down Syndrome and with normal range IQ.
Look at it this way: we often label a baby at birth on exam with no knowledge of future cognitive function and with the suspicion confirmed, in our minds, by the chromosome result. We are not waiting for a kid to demonstrate cognitive delay before they get the label and we would not remove the label if cognitive delay never occurs.
The chromosomes pairs are numbered 1-22 by size (with 1 being the largest. The 23rd pair are the sex chromosomes). 21nd pair chromosomes are second to smallest, and are much smaller than the largest ones. It is thought that the impact of duplicating much larger amounts of DNA, as in some of the other trisomy defects, contributes to the more profound negative impact on zygotic/embryonic/fetal survivability.
Yes, you’re right. In fact, I think by being pedantic I was actually paradoxically speaking for a more loose use of “syndrome,” as long as it’s understood. As you say, “Down Syndrome [but] …”
Crucially, I spoke out of my league about sine qua non.
I have more familiarity with lay and to an extent technical discussion of mood disorders, which of course have shading-spectra galore of sets of symptoms.
One thing I’ve wondered about: Are there any genetic benefits arising from Trisomy 21? Are there some genes on chromosome 21 for which it is more beneficial to have three copies of that gene than two copies? The substances produced by the genes on chromosome 21 are produced at a 1.5 times higher quantity in a person with Downs than a person without Downs, so maybe for some of these substances, having a higher quantity is better. For instance, I’ve heard that many common types of cancer are much less common in people with Trisomy 21 than in the general population. This is probably because they have three rather than two copies of certain tumor-suppressor genes found on chromosome 21.
Isn’t it also possible that people with this condition don’t live long enough to develop cancer?
Except that I think (s)he must have misheard. Individuals with Down Syndrome are prone to more cancer, not less. In particular acute leukemia but also others.