The Catrin Vaughan Foundation recently attended Tavernspite School to present pupil Ella Brown with a specially adapted touch screen laptop computer.

Ella is a Year 5 pupil who has Down’s Syndrome. She is able to access the National Curriculum to a degree and she spends a large percentage of her school day included in her class activities with the support of her 1:1.

Ella has additional learning needs and it is hoped the laptop computer will improve her motivation and ensure her learning experience is enhanced with pictures, sounds and animation, which should help to focus her interest and attention.

It will also provide Ella with much needed visual and auditory input.

She will also be able to give non-verbal responses, enabling her to demonstrate her understanding without having to produce a spoken response, which can sometimes be particularly difficult due to issues with articulation.

The laptop computer will also help raise Ella’s self esteem as it would enable her to become more independent in her learning.

It is proven that children with Down’s Syndrome need much more practice to acquire new skills and a laptop would provide as many opportunities as necessary to repeat the same objective in exactly the same way as well as providing her with immediate feedback for her successes which is crucial.