How do you interact with people with Down's Syndrome?

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There are lots of people in my physical area with DS. Some of them act like anti-aspies (imagine a spectrum going on way past neurotypicality, at least in the social sense), e.g. wanting to stand really close, shake hands for ages, talk, hug. If I don't know them it can be really uncomfortable, and I don't always know how to escape (I can walk away, but I might hurt them).

Do you find this, and are there special rules for dealing with DS people?

I just found a kind-of interesting article, too: Comorbidity of Down Syndrome and Autism. Does anyone know anything more about this?

i use to know someone who hald mild mr, he was pretty cool. overall i say i get along with em

It seems to be relatively rare. I used to work with people with MR and DS people are very social on the whole. They may be inappropriately social, but the instinct to chit chat appears to be very strong. They have a much lower "mental age" than others of their age so you need to treat them as much younger than their age. Ask them a question about themselves and they will talk your ear off. They will tell you about the people they interact with and also talk about what they think other people are thinking. That is something we don't intuitively do - think about what other people are thinking.

Just treat them like normal people. I do not give them any better or worse treatment because of their disability.

i think people will down syndrome are cool

TruenoBlues, I'm not talking about treating people better or worse, I'm talking about treating them appropriately.

Most people do talk to them as if they're children, but I think I'm too shy to do that. I'm not very good at talking to children as if they're children either.

Practical reason for this question: I want to try to make friends with some of them (don't say 'oh, just do it as if they were NT', because I am extremely bad at that).

They are far easier to deal with than NTs.

They are very honest, unpretentious and do not have a nasty bone in their body.
Very unjudgemental and straightforward.
If you want to 'make friends' with one, then approach, smile, say "Hello, my name is... ", and take it from there.

edit: As you know, some can be very tactile. If you are uncomfortable with this, then i doubt they will be offended if you break off the contact abruptly. I dont mean push them on the floor or anything, but do not be too shy about 'escaping from their clutch.' You are unlikely to offend or cause them embarrasment.

a few of my only friends in high school were downs, I didn't get along with them any better or worse than I did with any of my other friends throughout my life. as long as they are nice I get along fine with almost anyone.

I used to drive them around to appointments and they talk way too much. They are also cognitively different than auties/aspies, but I think the NT population looks at them more favorably despite their cognitive limits because they at least aren't autistic, which appears to be the worst dx for a child of an NT. The thought of autistic child horrifies people whereas a MR person evokes pity.

I don't know of anyone with Down Syndrome.

I go to an adaptive P.E. class with assorted types of SPED kids. Most of the kids with Downs Syndrome rarely interact with me.

What is Down Syndrome?

http://images.google.com/images?sourcei ... a=N&tab=wi

That's Down syndrome. The people who look different.

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I treat them like normal people. I have always played with them like normal kids. I had a friend with Down syndrome and we played together. I felt realy happy then because I hadn't had a friend in a long time my age who did the same things I did. We played with dolls, watched little kid shows like Arther, watched Disney movies. There came times when we fight and argue and had disputes and there came times when she watch movies I didn't watch because they were so boring. Only problem I had with her was not knowing what she said was true or not. She lie about stuff like the time she said her father was dead but the problem is she copies what people say like echolalia so she doesn't do it on purpose. Her mom's Dad died so she copied what her mother said. It's her grandfather that died, not her father. One time she said her cousin was her nephew but I knew it was her cousin. She probably hears her mother saying "This is my nephew" so she says it too. But I always came up to her mother and ask what she say is true and she tell me. Then what broke us apart was us moving to Montana and we didn't go back to Washington often to visit. Now I'm back in the area, I'm not even sure if I want to go back and visit because it's been so long since we've seen each other. She could be in a group home or her family could have moved away and I don't know it. It's been 6 1/2 years.

I was always told to talk to children as if they were adults. Baring certain adult topics. But then, I think newborns cogitate.

when i was at college the cafeteria was also used by a group of ppl with downs who would come in occasionally with their supervisors. for a long time i never did anything whilst they were there and then one day i had a packet of maltesers and i was in the cafeteria practising blowing them into the air with my mouth and the downs ppl were in there and one of the women starting laughing hysterically then they all looked at me and i did the malteser trick again and they all started laughign and then talked to me and i found it really funny to do ater that i always made sure i had some maltesers in my bag