Music therapy helps Kent girl with Down’s syndrome

Evie said her sister Emmie would cry when she went into school

The family of a young girl from Kent with Down's syndrome said music therapy helped reduce her anxiety.

Six-year-old Emmie, from Rochester, was experiencing extreme separation anxiety at school and struggling to make friends.

This led to her being recommended music therapy by a teacher.

Her mother, Lauren, said: "She was so shy. We had to use a lot of sign language with her, but now she’s literally really trying her best to use words [and] communicate a lot.”

Emmie sees a Nordoff and Robbins music therapist once a week and has become more confident and independent.

Emmie's sister, Evie, said: "She’s changed so much. The first time I saw her going into school she was like crying."

Johanna Aiyathurai, co-founder of Kent-based Down's syndrome charity 21 Together, said music can be a "brilliant" way to engage children and young people with the genetic condition.

She said: "We use [it] with all ages - it enables children to come together and bond without the use of words."

It is World Down Syndrome Day on 21 March, a date chosen to signify the 21st chromosome which causes the genetic condition.

Angus Addenbrooke, from the Down's syndrome network Our Voice, said: "It’s a celebration to give people an opportunity to go out there in the world and make sure they are responsible [to] take their own actions [and] engage in opportunities to learn different ways of progressing [in] a progressing environment.”

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