The Educational Course in the Acquisition of the Autonomy of Associazone Italiana Persone Down
The Associazione Italiana Persone Down is an association of families which acts as a reference point for the parents of children and adults affected by Down syndrome. To stimulate and sustain the growth of the autonomy of persons with Down syndrome, the first educational course aimed at developing a capacity for autonomy was introduced in the AIPD in Rome in 1989. The course, which was designed for boys and girls from 15 to 20 years, has been repeated every year with an ever greater participation and replicated in many other cities. The educational objectives proposed by the programme are grouped into five areas: communication, orientation, road behaviour, using money, shopping and more generally making use of services. All the youngsters involved exhibit change; at the end of the course all are able to cross roads by themselves, use a public telephone, ask information in order to resolve their difficulties and know how to go shopping. Furthermore, there are aspects of each persons personality, such as confidence in self, self-esteem, and the capacity to establish relations with others, which have undergone great changes in the direction of a greater knowledge. There is also structural development of their own identities, first and foremost as adolescents, and then as adolescents with certain limitations but nevertheless as adolescents able to do a wide variety of things.