families
Yoga sessions at HDSSG
“Yoga is one of the oldest systems of personal development in the world. This system of balancing the body, mind and spirit was formulated by ancient yogis, who understood man’s essential nature and realised a way to utilise all of man’s inner resources to live in harmony with himself and the environment.” (Iyengar Yoga Association)
Iyengar yoga is the most widely practiced form of yoga. Practicing Yoga helps you overcome and prevent many stresses, strains, aches and pains. It promotes a firm foundation for health and well-being. It can help our children improve muscle tone, balance and flexibility. It is also masses of fun with our little ones!!
HDSSG have been working with Huddersfield based Iyengar Instructor Jayny Stock for over 12 months now at our venue, The Watershed, Slaithwaite. We try to have at least one session available to our families every month and we have had a fantastic response to the sessions. Jayny is patient, unflappable (it’s a real talent to remain unfazed when mid pose to have a 6 year old jump on you!) and brilliant at pitching the sessions at just the right level to engage our group and keep it fun!
All ages and abilities have accessed our yoga sessions from the bendiest of babies, tensile teens and supple seniors! It’s open to all of our members and their families. So if you haven’t tried it yet please come along! Dates of our upcoming sessions can be found in the members section of this website.
HDSSG take part in Examiner Wish 2012
Thank you to the Huddersfield Examiner for another lovely article. As part of their ‘Wish 2012’ campaign they will feature all the charities and organisations in Huddersfield that have joined up in the hope of receiving a share of £25,000. Today our very own HDSSG got their chance to shine:
FAMILIES who have children with Down Syndrome in Huddersfield have access to a parents’ network of advice and support.
The Huddersfield Down Syndrome Support Group has harnessed the latest technology to ensure they are constantly in touch.
An easy-to-use website, Facebook page and Twitter feed mean friendly help and advice is only a click away.
The group, which has some 40 members, is open to all Huddersfield parents with children from birth age to 21 years.
Communications officer Leanne Davies, whose six-year-old son Jack has Down Syndrome, said the group was run by parents for parents and always welcomed new members.
The group regularly holds social events and gatherings aimed at all the family including brothers and sisters.
Days at the seaside, impromptu picnics, trips to the zoo, swimming sessions and the much-anticipated annual panto visit are loved by the children.
The group, though, offers a great deal of practical help and advice for parents.
Leanne said: “The idea is that we can all share our experiences with each other.
“We all have different areas of expertise. For example some of us work in schools and can help with issues involving schooling.
“There are some great services available locally and we can help people access them.”
This weekend the group will launch Tiny Talkers, a six-week speech and language therapy programme.
The Sunday morning sessions will take place at The Watershed in Slaithwaite.
Due to demand from parents, the group has invested in training for one of their number, Bernie Egan, a mum of two children with Down Syndrome.
Bernie trained with Symbol UK and will deliver the programme to younger children first.
Leanne, 32, who lives in Oakes, said: “This is something that has come from parents.
“As we all know resources are stretched in the area and communication for our children is absolutely vital.
“Hopefully we will be able to continue to develop the programme as we go along.”
While the accent is on fun, the group is about so much more than that.
“It’s not just about days out,” said Leanne. “It’s about educating and empowering parents.”
To contact the group go to: www.hdssg.org.
Down Syndrome is a genetic condition which results in some level of learning disability and a characteristic range of physical features.
Learning disability significantly affects a child’s ability to learn compared with other children of their age.
It does not mean, however, that a child cannot learn at all.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO DISPLAY ONE OF OUR POSTERS PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COPY & PRINT THIS PDF – HDSSG token poster
♦ Thank you to Martin Shaw at the Huddersfield Examiner for the great write up.
HDSSG Summer fun comes to an end….
As the start of a new school term looms, we have to say goodbye to ‘summer’ and recap on all the fantastic activities and opportunities that came our way over the holidays.
We have had some great fun over the last six weeks with the fantastic families that make up Huddersfield Down Syndrome Support Group.
One of our local SureStart centres hosted a series of weekly sessions aimed at children with SEN and their siblings. These were superbly organised and the staff were excellent. Our ‘Little Stars’ had the opportunity to use the lovely indoor & outdoor facilities including a fabulous sensory room and also take part in craft and singing sessions!
Another weekly session aimed exclusively at children with SEN took place at ‘The Zone’ – a leisure facility in Huddersfield. Children had exclusive use of the ‘Kids Zone’, Yorkshire’s biggest indoor play structure!
This Summer also saw the return of SEN holiday clubs at Eureka! Children’s museum in Halifax. These sessions were brilliantly planned and great fun. Each week had a different theme and after the club had finished your family were welcome to continue to tour the museum for as long as you wished! Eureka! are planning Saturday clubs specifically for children with Down Syndrome to start next March! We will of course keep you posted….
Huddersfield Down Syndrome Support Group also organised some fun activities for our members.
Our younger HDSSG’ers enjoyed several sessions at Hollybank Trust’s amazing Hydrotherapy pool. The private sessions in beautifully warm water along with the muted lighting and music make it a very relaxing experience!
We booked two sessions with the lovely Tracey and Bongo the dog, aka Bongo Beats, to come along and share their music magic with our little ones. We bopped along to music, sang songs, played instruments, pretended to be sleeping bunnies, played with parachutes and pom poms and hula hoops and bubbles! Great fun!
We left Huddersfield on a grey Sunday morning to head to the seaside! We took 14 members and their families to Blackpool and the Sea Life Centre courtesy of Merlin’s Magic Wand. The weather wasn’t much better when we arrived at our destination but after touring the wonderful attraction and seeing some amazing sea creatures we stepped out into glorious sunshine! Perfect for our families to enjoy the rest of the day exploring the sights or playing on the beach!
Our last day out of the summer was spent with the brilliant guys at Safe Anchor Trust cruising the Huddersfield waterways. Once again we were blessed with good weather as we set sail from Shepley Bridge Marina in Mirfield. Our families had opportunities to work the locks and steer the boats, even the smallest sailors chipped in! After mooring to enjoy a picnic on the towpath it was time to head back to the marina after another exciting day out!
HDSSG would like to thank all the people we have met in the places we have visited over the last few weeks. We would also like to thank our families for continuing to support our group, we hope you have had a lovely summer and look forward to our next opportunities to get together.
HDSSG New Parent Booklet is launched!
Here at Huddersfield Down Syndrome Support Group we wanted to compile a booklet reflecting our group and some of the members in it. With the help of photos sent in from our families and the artful eye of Mark Travis it is now ready! We will be including these booklets in our ‘new parent’ packs that will be distributed in our local hospitals and given to our contact families to share. It will also be kept under our ‘new parent’ section of the website for anyone to download if they wish.
We hope you enjoy meeting some of the fantastic children that make up Huddersfield Down Syndrome Support Group.
Massive thanks to Mark Travis for the design and to Sanderson Associates for their contribution and support as always.
HDSSG make the papers!
As reported by the Huddersfield Examiner!
THEY have a simple aim … to celebrate their children’s achievements.
And there was every reason to do so in Slaithwaite, as the youngsters took on the challenge of learning Iyengar Yoga.
It was just the latest attempt by the Huddersfield’s Down Syndrome Support Group (HDSSG) to highlight just how rewarding it can be to work with families.
They had gathered at Slaithwaite’s Watershed – a converted weaving shed used to host creative workshops – to take part in the sessions. Designed to help strengthen the muscles of children with Down Syndrome and aid with hypotonia, the yoga morning also proved to be very sociable.
Hypotonia is a state of low muscle tone which commonly results from different diseases and disorders that affect motor nerve control by the brain or muscle strength.
More than 10 families took part in the relaxing 45-minute Iyengar session led by instructor Jayny Stock.
This form of yoga is often used in physical therapy as it helps target unsupple or injured areas.
Leanne Davies, communications officer for HDSSG, joined the group after giving birth to her son Jack in 2006, and said that popularity in the group has grown.
She said: “We have got over 40 families in Huddersfield and we do various events for different age groups.
“It was founded by parents of children with Down Syndrome in the area and we believe it is crucial to celebrate our children’s achievements, champion their views and aspirations, challenge out-dated thinking and spread current accurate information about Down Syndrome.
“The group has been running for several years but we recently decided to kick it up a notch and make it more visible for families in the area.
“We are now using social media and have launched a website to make people aware that we are here should they need support.
“As a result we have welcomed four new babies in the last 12 months in Huddersfield alone.”
“It can be quite scary at first, but by talking to other parents it helps you know that everything is going to be okay and in fact it is the start of something wonderful.”
Older members of the group were busy taking part in a swimming competition for Kirklees Disability Team in Beverley while the younger ones enjoyed the yoga.
HDSSG have a calendar of events for the next few weeks including World Down Syndrome Day on March 21, which has been recognised for the first time by the United Nations.
The day was originally started in 2005 and it recognises the uniqueness of the triplication of chromosome 21 which causes the genetic condition Down Syndrome.
The aim of the day is to raise awareness and understanding of a condition which affects approximately 1 in 800 births worldwide.
Every day in the UK between one and two babies are born with the condition.
On March 24, the group will join the Wakefield and District Down Syndrome Support Group in a family fun day at Nostell Priory.
There will be dance displays, fairground games, inflatable football and musical entertainment from Slaithwaite’s Shabang group.
Gardening project for families of children with additional needs.
PCAN and Holme Valley Gardening Network are getting together to provide an opportunity for families of children with additional needs to take part in a FREE gardening project.
Feel free to pop along on 31st March 2012 between 1.30 and 4.30pm.
For more information click the following link PCAN Gardening leaflet