40 Fun Facts About Down Syndrome

Down syndrome is caused by an extra copy of which human chromosome, the smallest of them all?

Chromosome 21 holds only about 1.5 percent of a cell's DNA, yet a third copy of it, known as trisomy 21, changes how the body and brain develop.

World Down Syndrome Day is observed each year in which month?

March is the third month, a nod to the three copies of one chromosome, and the United Nations has observed the day every year since 2012.

Where does the 'Down' in Down syndrome, a condition detailed in a landmark 1866 paper, come from?

A British doctor's surname is the source: John Langdon Down published his description in 1866, and the name says nothing about mood or ability.

Which mismatched clothing marks World Down Syndrome Day because its shape resembles a chromosome?

Socks in bright or odd pairs are the best-known way to mark the day, an idea promoted around the world as the Lots of Socks campaign.

Which 1989 ABC drama was the first TV series with a major character who has Down syndrome?

Life Goes On was created around Chris Burke, an actor with Down syndrome, after ABC executives saw him in a TV movie; he played Corky Thatcher for four seasons.

Lauren Potter, who has Down syndrome, played cheerleader Becky Jackson on which TV series?

Glee made Lauren Potter well known enough that President Obama appointed her in 2011 to a committee advising the White House on intellectual disabilities.

In 2020 Chris Nikic became the first person with Down syndrome to finish which endurance event?

An Ironman triathlon took Chris Nikic 16 hours and 46 minutes in Florida: a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a full marathon, back to back.

Which doll line added its first doll with Down syndrome in 2023, designed with a US charity's help?

Barbie gained the doll in April 2023 with help from the National Down Syndrome Society, and in 2024 Mattel followed it with a Black Barbie with Down syndrome.

In 2018 Lucas Warren became the first 'spokesbaby' with Down syndrome for which US food brand?

Gerber chose Lucas from about 140,000 entries, ninety years after an unfinished charcoal sketch of a baby first became the face of the brand.

Nearly half of babies with Down syndrome have a defect in which organ, often repaired by surgery?

The heart is affected so often that paediatricians advise an echocardiogram for every baby with Down syndrome, and better surgery has helped life expectancy climb.

Which rare form of Down syndrome means only some of a person's cells carry the extra chromosome?

Mosaic Down syndrome is the least common type, at about 2 percent of cases, with some cells holding the usual 46 chromosomes and others 47.

Which type of Down syndrome, about 3 percent of cases, is the only one that can run in families?

Translocation means the extra chromosome material is attached to another chromosome, and in about a third of these cases a parent carries the rearrangement.

Most Down syndrome begins with a slip in which type of cell division, before a baby is conceived?

Meiosis halves the chromosome count to make eggs and sperm, and when one pair fails to split, a cell is left holding a spare copy to pass on.

Which prenatal test confirms Down syndrome by drawing fluid from around the baby with a needle?

Amniocentesis is usually done between 15 and 20 weeks of pregnancy and, unlike a screening test, gives a diagnosis that is nearly 100 percent accurate.

Which lab test confirms Down syndrome after birth by photographing and sorting a baby's chromosomes?

A karyotype groups the chromosomes by size, number and shape, so the extra one shows up as a set of three where a pair should be.

The nuchal translucency scan for Down syndrome measures fluid behind an unborn baby's what?

Neck fluid is measured by ultrasound between 11 and 14 weeks of pregnancy, and the result is only ever a chance, never a diagnosis.

Newer Down syndrome screens read bits of a baby's DNA in a sample of the pregnant woman's what?

Blood drawn from the arm is enough because the placenta sheds fragments of DNA into the pregnant woman's bloodstream.

Hypotonia, common in babies with Down syndrome and a reason many walk later, means low what?

Muscle tone that is low adds to delays in rolling over, sitting up and crawling, though children with Down syndrome can still take part in sport like other children.

Adults with Down syndrome often get which brain condition, tied to a gene on the extra chromosome?

Alzheimer's disease is common because the extra chromosome carries the gene for amyloid precursor protein, which builds up as plaques in the brain.

Which gland is often underactive in children with Down syndrome and treated with hormone tablets?

The thyroid helps regulate temperature and energy, so health providers recommend checking it at birth, at six months and then every year for life.

Which factor is the only one clearly linked to a higher chance of having a baby with Down syndrome?

The mother's age matters: the chance rises from about 1 in 350 at age 35 to 1 in 100 at 40, yet about half of these babies are born to women under 35.

Scientists in which country first showed, in 1959, that an extra chromosome causes Down syndrome?

France was home to Jérôme Lejeune, Marthe Gautier and Raymond Turpin, who published the finding together; Gautier later said her part in the lab work had been pushed aside.

Which country persuaded the WHO in 1965 to drop an offensive old name for Down syndrome?

Mongolia objected to a label built on the name of its people, four years after nineteen scientists had called the term embarrassing and misleading.

Trisomy 18, the most common trisomy at birth after Down syndrome, also bears which scientist's name?

Edwards syndrome honours John Hilton Edwards, the English geneticist who first described it in 1960, a year after the cause of Down syndrome was found.

Saying 'a child with Down syndrome', not 'a Down syndrome child', follows which style of wording?

People-first language puts the person before the diagnosis, and the same advocacy guides say people have Down syndrome rather than suffer from it.

Which annual event did the National Down Syndrome Society start in 1995 to celebrate awareness?

Buddy Walk events now take place in towns and cities across the United States, led by a flagship walk in New York City.

In the 1987 essay 'Welcome to Holland', the plane was meant to land in which country?

Italy stands for the parenthood people expect; writer Emily Perl Kingsley, whose son Jason has Down syndrome, used the detour to describe raising a disabled child.

Which cancer is 10 to 15 times more common in children with Down syndrome than in other children?

Leukemia stands out against a striking pattern: people with Down syndrome have a lower risk of most solid cancers, including those of the lung and breast.

Many people with Down syndrome have a single deep crease running across which part of the body?

The palm usually shows two main creases; a single one appears in close to half of people with Down syndrome, but also in a few percent of everyone else.

Brushfield spots, pale flecks common in people with Down syndrome, appear on which part of the eye?

The iris shows the spots most clearly in lighter eyes, and they carry the name of Thomas Brushfield, the physician who described them in a 1924 thesis.

Writer Emily Perl Kingsley put her son Jason, who has Down syndrome, on which children's TV show?

Sesame Street hired Emily Perl Kingsley as a writer in 1970, and raising Jason led her to bring people with disabilities, Jason included, into its cast.

In 2022 Sofía Jirau became the first model with Down syndrome hired by which lingerie brand?

Victoria's Secret cast the Puerto Rican model in its Love Cloud campaign, two years after her debut at New York Fashion Week.

Jamie Brewer, an actress with Down syndrome, played Addie and the witch Nan in which FX series?

American Horror Story gave Jamie Brewer her TV debut in 2011, and in 2015 she became the first woman with Down syndrome to walk at New York Fashion Week.

Zack Gottsagen, who has Down syndrome, plays a runaway with a wrestling dream in which 2019 film?

The Peanut Butter Falcon was written for Zack Gottsagen after he asked its directors for a starring role, and in 2020 he became the first Oscars presenter with Down syndrome.

Pablo Pineda, star of the film Yo, también, was the first European with Down syndrome to earn what?

A university degree in teaching is not his only distinction: he won the Silver Shell for best actor at the 2009 San Sebastián film festival.

Ellie Goldstein was the first model with Down syndrome in a campaign for which luxury fashion house?

Gucci chose the English model for its beauty products, and she went on to appear on a Vogue cover and compete on Strictly Come Dancing.

Which wartime general and later president had a daughter, Anne, with Down syndrome, born in 1928?

Charles de Gaulle later said a framed photograph of Anne, lying on the rear shelf of his car, stopped a bullet during an assassination attempt in 1962.

Actor Pascal Duquenne, who has Down syndrome, shared a 1996 Best Actor prize at which film festival?

Cannes honoured Pascal Duquenne and co-star Daniel Auteuil together for The Eighth Day, about a businessman who befriends a man who has run away from an institution.

Which short film about two brothers, one of whom has Down syndrome, won an Oscar in 2023?

An Irish Goodbye follows estranged siblings working through a bucket list on the family farm, and it also took the BAFTA for Best Short Film that year.

Judith Scott, a deaf artist with Down syndrome, made sculptures by wrapping objects in what?

Coloured yarn bound around found objects became her cocoon-like sculptures, which are now held by museums including New York's Museum of Modern Art.