Down Syndrome Research Forum 2025

The 2025 Down Syndrome Research Forum will be held on 17th, 18th, and 19th March, and is hosted by Down Syndrome Education International.

The Down Syndrome Research Forum is an annual international event where researchers, students, practitioners, and families meet to discuss current research and practice, and learn from each other.

Once again, the Forum will be held online. However, this year, it will take place over 3 shorter days with the timings varied each day to reflect the increasing international contributions and attendance. We welcome presentations of research work (including work in progress), and presentations from practitioners, family members, and individuals with Down syndrome, who may wish to share their experiences of using particular interventions or service models.

Presenters will be asked to present their work to attendees in live sessions delivered over video-call. All sessions will be recorded to enable registered participants who are unable to attend the live sessions to access content later.

The invited keynotes this year are:

• "Parent Power: The uniquely powerful position of parents in supporting language development for children with Down syndrome". Dr Kelly Burgoyne, Senior Lecturer in Psychology of Education, University of Manchester, UK
• "The sibling subsystem in families with a child with Down syndrome: Processes and outcomes". Professor Monica Cuskelly, Director of Research, Applied Research Centre for Disability and Wellbeing, University of Tasmania, Australia
• "Teaching children with Down syndrome to read: what we know, what we do not know and what are the implications for literacy teaching and for early speech and language interventions?" Professor Sue Buckley, , Director of Science and Research, Down Syndrome Education International, UK
• "Mastery motivation from early childhood to early adulthood: Findings from a 20 year study of individuals with Down syndrome” Professor Linda Gilmore, The Centre for Inclusive Education, University of Queensland, Australia, and Professor Monica Cuskelly.

Please share this page with others who may wish to join us. You can share on social media by clicking the icons below. To receive updates about the 2025 Forum, you can join our mailing list.

If you are new to the Forum see the dedicated page for further details. Any questions can be asked on the Research Forum section on the DSE Community site.

Information for Presenters

If you would like to present at the 2025 Forum, please submit an abstract to research@dseinternational.org no later than January 31st 2025. We welcome individual paper submissions and suggestions for symposia if you wish to organise one. The duration of each individual presentation is approximately 20 minutes (including 5 minutes for questions). Symposia should consist of 3 or 4 individual papers organised around a clear theme.

Abstracts for individual papers: Abstracts for individual papers (max. 300 words) should include: (i) the title, (ii) names of all authors (with institutional affiliations where appropriate), (iii) email address of first author, and (iv) a summary of your presentation. Summaries for research talks should include: background, research question(s), method, results, and conclusion.

Abstracts for symposia: Abstracts for symposia should include a symposia abstract (max. 300 words) and an abstract for each individual paper in the symposia (as above). The symposia abstract should include: (i) Name(s) of organiser(s), presenters, and the discussant and their e-mail addresses, institutional affiliation(s); (ii) Title of the symposium; (iv) Aim(s) of the symposium and a summary of the contribution of each presentation.

The Committee will review abstracts and confirm submissions by February 14th, 2025. The full programme will be published by 21st February 2025.

Registration

We will open registration in early 2025. You can join our mailing list to be notified when registration opens.