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Down Syndrome NSW
Level 6/410 Church St, North Parramatta
9am-5pm Monday - Thursday
T: 9841 444


Thursday 8 January 2009

Library Thursdays: Most popular of 2008


Looking forward to 2009 in the library, we'll first look back on what people borrowed. The first and second most borrowed items were two of the excellent DVDs from Blueberry Shoes--Kids with Down syndrome: Staying Healthy and Making Friends and The First 18 Months. (Another one, Discovery was the third most borrowed DVD/video.) All written and directed by Will Schermerhorn, the DVDs provide the advice and experience of experts and parents around the world on the various facets of development. The beautiful footage showing children and adolescents with Down syndrome is inspiring and educating. These resources appeal to parents, educators and therapists, so it is not surprising that they were the most borrowed. The other most borrowed DVDs were two from the Downs Ed Trust-- Inclusion in Practice: Educating children with Down syndrome in Primary School and Development in Practice: Speech and Language Activities for preschoolers with Down syndrome.


The most popular books borrowed reflected the main categories of the collection. The most borrowed book was Gifts (edited by K.L. Soper). This is a collection of reflections by mothers of children with Down syndrome. Personal stories make up a big part of loans from the library. Next was Teaching Children with Down Syndrome about Their Bodies, Boundaries and Sexuality by Terri Couwenhoven. These issues are of concern to parents, educators and therapists. This is an excellent book so it is not surprising to see it so popular. Next was A Kid's Guide to Down syndrome from the Down Syndrome Society of South Australia. This book is a primary school level explanation of Down syndrome for children with Down syndrome as well as siblings, friends and classmates. And of course next on the list were the popular books from the Issues and Information Series by the Downs Ed Trust. Many of these are now available online but we also have the hardcopies in the library. The most popular of this series were Memory Development, Motor Development and Social Skills Development. (Social skills has just recently has been put online but the other two are still to come online.) Finishing off the top 10 resources borrowed, was Roadmap to Holland (see blog this week)by Jennifer Graf Gronewald, another personal story.
These are all excellent resources, so it is a pleasure to see them being used. I suspect that many of these will be on the list again next year, but I'm looking forward to new exciting reading and viewing in 2009.
To borrow any of these or anything else, email us.

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