Christian Volunteer Team Launches Artistic Training for Teenagers with Down Syndrome

A teenager with Down Syndrome sang a song in the piano accompaniment by a volunteer Liu Yanrui majoring in early childhood development and health management on the afternoon of Sept 25, 2021.
A teenager with Down Syndrome sang a song in the piano accompaniment by a volunteer Liu Yanrui majoring in early childhood development and health management on the afternoon of Sept 25, 2021. (photo: Reed’s Family Center)
By Zhang MengyueSeptember 29th, 2021

A public welfare project of supplying artistic training to teenagers with Down Syndrome was carried out in the Volunteer Service Center of Reed’s Family.

On September 25, in the Reed’s Family Center in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, a dozen disabled children were divided into two rows, singing the happy birthday song together, accompanied by piano. According to reports, the charity project was carried out under the guidance of professional teachers to help them obtain all-around development of their physical and mental skills.

In the activities on the first day of the project, together with a volunteer Miao Miao, Liu Yanrui, who majored in early childhood development and health management, contacted these special children to establish a preliminary emotional connection, leading them in singing according to the scores in the piano accompaniment.

After the learning, Liu gave the children homework and arranged the teaching activities for the next week, in which children would learn the most basic beats and performance styles, and master various content of music performance from shallow to deep.

“We have a common dream of creating the first band mainly composed of children with intellectual disabilities such as Down Syndrome in Zhenjiang, who can enter the community to serve the society, and step onto stages to show their talents,” said Cao Shengjia, the person in charge of Reed’s Family.

Down syndrome is a genetic disorder that is caused when abnormal cell division results in extra genetic material from chromosome 21. 60% of the children are aborted in the early stages of the fetus, and the survivors have obvious mental retardation, special facial features, growth and development disorders, and multiple deformities. It is one of the most common chromosomal disorders associated with intellectual disabilities, and most people have mild to moderate mental retardation. It usually affects the patient’s learning style, posture, physical signs and health.

- Translated by Abigail Wu

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