Children with Down syndrome, autism and other developmental disorders need special help in a timely manner to help them optimize their speech capabilities, conference organizers said yesterday.
Although the two-day conference, which concludes today, is organized by the Down Syndrome Foundation, experts from Taiwan and Japan also talked about other developmentally disabled children, especially those with Asperger's syndrome.
One in 800 children are born with Down syndrome in Taiwan, while two in 100 are diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, organizers said.
The conference was attended mostly by parents and educators working with developmentally disabled children.
"There are physical as well as psychological development issues that make it hard for kids with Down syndrome to communicate," said Lin Pei-hui (
"Their jaws and chins are often underdeveloped, making it hard for them to talk intelligibly," Lin said.
Lin said that she uses therapeutic exercises such as massage and asks children to blow outwards in order to strengthen the jaw muscles.
"Of course it can be very frustrating for them not to be able to express what they want," Lin said.
Liao Chieh-ru (廖婕洳), who has a five-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, said that her daughter's speech impediment contributes to behavioral problems.
"She has a temper, and it is hard for her to be obedient," Liao said. "Sometimes she gets angry when we cannot understand what she is trying to say."
"Some of the problems relate to her underdeveloped jaw, which makes it difficult to enunciate," Liao said. "But she will also mix up the word order and say things such as `drink, I want.'"
Liao said she wanted to learn as much as possible at the conference about helping her daughter develop her language abilities.
Su Li-chin (
"We try to have a conference like this at least every other year," Su said. "But we don't always succeed."
A Taichung session of the conference will take place on Nov. 2 and Nov. 3.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS