Sex education tailored to cognitive level, learning style, and living arrangements is essential to the education of children and young adults with down syndrome. Relationships + sexuality it is commonly thought that sexuality is not a concern for people with down syndrome People with down syndrome and other developmental disabilities are often assumed to be uninterested in sex and sexuality, to , and that their interests should match their cognitive age or abilities, not their biological age. People with down syndrome are often infantilised and perceived as “forever children”, and in many ways shielded from the experiences of adulthood, including sexuality But people with down syndrome have the same emotional and physical needs as anybody else, the same right to an independent love and sexual life and the same need to receive clear and accessible information to support them to. Men and women with down syndrome have the same susceptibility to sexually transmitted diseases as the rest of the population
Use of condoms during sexual intercourse is the best known form of protection interpersonal relationships. Historically, sex and dating among people with down syndrome hasn’t even been formally studied “we don’t have data on sexual activity,” says terri couwenhoven—an author and sex educator.
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