Early Development Groups

Our online PADS Early Development Groups (PEGS) provide parents with the resources, knowledge, support and confidence to promote their child's development.

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Our live sessions for 2025/26 are fully booked. If you missed a space, you can still access our video only options below.

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Early intervention for our children can have a very beneficial impact which is why Down Syndrome UK created PADS Early Development Group (PEGS). PEGS provides parents with the resources, knowledge, ongoing support and confidence to promote their child’s development. Access videos at your convenience and join 30 minute online sessions with up to five other parents, for specialist support and advice. Videos demonstrate research based early intervention activities that you can enjoy with your child as part of your everyday life at home. These cover communication, speech development, early numbers and reading, fine motor skills and memory. Each family joins a group of up to six, with a designated Early Development Advisor (EDA) and you will meet on a regular ongoing basis, for peer support and encouragement as well as expert advice and guidance from your EDA. PEGS is suitable from when your little one is 6 months old and runs all the way through to starting school. We subsidise the termly price to make it affordable for all families but we would never want a family not to be able to access services, so don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if needed.

 

Stage A

Aimed at children aged 6-12 months (those born between 1 September 2024 and 28 February 2025). The course begins with a 1:1 call to discuss your child’s requirements, then an introductory Zoom session with your Early Development Advisor and up to 5 other families, when you have the opportunity to get to know each other in advance of exploring the upcoming videos. You’ll have access 24/7 to a monthly video by specialist Speech and Language Therapist Becky Baxter demonstrating activities to encourage and support general development of your infant across a range of skills. These videos are followed by an online group session each month.

We offer two intakes

  • Stage A starts in September for children born between 1 September 2024 and 28 February 2025
  • Stage A2 starts in January for children born between 1 March 2025 and 31 August 2025

Stages A and A2 are each priced at £25 per term.

Stage A
Stage A2

Stages B, C , D and D repeat

Stages B, C and D combine 6 families into groups. Families will start the year with a 1:1 call to discuss their child’s individual requirements. Then, the course itself begins with an online group introductory session which gives you the opportunity to meet the other members of your group, introduce your little ones and learn more about what to expect in the coming term. This is followed by a fortnightly group zoom class.  It is not necessary for your child to be present at the sessions, so don’t worry if it’s a nursery day or sleep time.  The sessions are about supporting you to understand how best to help your child’s development.

  • Stage B for children born between 1 September 2023 – 31 August 2024
  • Stage C for children born between 1 September 2022 – 31 August 23 
  • Stage D is for children born between 1 September 2021 – 31 August 2022
  • Stage D Repeat is for children born between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2021 who would like to repeat stage D

Stages B, C, D and D repeat are each priced at £40 per term.

Stage B
Stage C
Stage D
Stage D Repeat

Parent Testimonials

Rebecca

Mum to Violet
"I have been attending the PEGs course online and obtained such valuable information about how our children with Down syndrome learn and lots of activities I can do with Violet to make learning fun. I ordered the resource pack and we’ve been using the phonics cards regularly. Recently Violet has started to recognise the ‘B’ and this is the sound she generally makes daily so we are now organising a bag full of things beginning with ‘B’ to help Violet to hopefully say some of them in time. We have learnt that repetition is absolutely key and visuals are a must. Thank you to PADS for organising these groups."

Sam

Mother to Logan
"Last week we had our first portage session and yesterday we had a session with an excellent private SALT. They were both utterly blown away by Logan’s abilities, and also the types of activities we are working on. The SALT was delighted to hear all his babble and speech attempts and he was happy to show off how well he is doing at his phonics discrimination.I am totally convinced he is doing so well because of the amazing PEGS programme, which we have been able to access since he was 6 months old. So I just wanted to send a massive THANK YOU, to you and everyone involved in PEGS. I personally would not be able to access anything like this locally and I am very very grateful."

Alice

Mother to Felicity
"We joined PEGS when Felicity was a baby because we didn’t have a local group to access. Since then, a local group was set up but we chose to continue accessing the online sessions as they provided such great support (both educational and emotional!) and gave us so many ideas to support Felicity’s development. The resources are still going strong after over 3 years of regular use!"

Helen Bradley

DSUK Parent
"I really don’t know what we’d have done without PEGS. It’s given us such a good understanding of how to support our little one and being in a group with other families has been amazing."
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Rebecca Carter

DSUK Parent
"We just got our PEGS pack – it is phenomenal. What a richly packed high-quality resource. All that DSUK do is of such quality – we are so lucky as a community to have DSUK, and the campaigning side you do. Lucky lucky lucky. Thank you!"

Pajae Chiam

DSUK Parent
"As a parent to a child with Down syndrome, I am beyond grateful for this provision that is among the few things out there that I can confidently say is easy to access, is affordable to access, easy to implement and most importantly, effective. I am beyond grateful to Becky, Nichola and the DSUK team for developing this resource. Thank you team!"

Course Leaders

Dr Becky Baxter headshot

Dr Rebecca Baxter

Becky Baxter is an extremely experienced speech and language therapist who has specialised in working with children and young adults with Down syndrome since 2007, working with hundreds of children in preschool settings over the course of her career.

Becky has devised and delivered a range of speech, language and communication services to parents and professionals including specialist early development groups for children from birth to school age, assessment and intervention for school-age children, communication groups for young adults, and training on the speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) associated with Down syndrome. In January 2024 Becky joined DSUK as our Director of Education and Speech and Language.

Sarah Holton

Sarah is a qualified teacher who specialises in supporting children with Down syndrome.  She has 18 years of primary teaching experience and has worked with many children with a variety of additional needs within a mainstream setting. Since 2013 Sarah has managed and delivered a Down syndrome specialist outreach service for Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1. Sarah delivers training for professionals and parents on a variety of topics as well as running education workshops for pupils. 
 
Sarah has worked with DSUK for many years developing our PEGS programme, delivering regular behaviour bootcamps and Information Sharing Sessions on topics including early reading, number and choosing a preschool. More recently she has been involved in the development and delivery of our Early Years Development Programme. She is a mum to two children, one of whom has Down syndrome. 
Sarah Holton headshot

Preschool Parent Resource Packs

PEGS resource pack image showing all the cards you receive in your pack

To get the most out of the course, we recommend purchasing DSUK’s preschool parent resource pack for just £35. In PEGS Becky & Sarah use similar resources in their videos as they demonstrate activities to parents.

These packs contain a range of resources to promote speech development, early reading and numeracy including speech sound cards, numicon cards, colour cards and lotto boards for matching. The resources will be of use throughout all stages and beyond!  

Purchase my pack
PEGS resource pack image showing all the cards you receive in your pack

Early Development Advisors

Our online sessions are delivered by Early Development Advisors (EDAs) who each have extensive experience working with children of preschool age with Down syndrome. All course recordings are complemented by follow-up Zoom sessions led by an Early Development Advisor who reviews the video making suggestions as to how parents can differentiate to extend or modify to meet or stretch an individual child’s ability. These sessions also provide a supportive forum at which parents can ask questions, share resources and encourage peers.

If you’d like to access the course without this personalised EDA support, click below to purchase the video only option.

Stage A Video Only
Stage B-D Video Only

FAQs

Upon booking for each stage, a number of options for dates and times are given to you to choose from.

We don’t record the online sessions but PEGS has a series of pre-recorded videos which you can watch.

We generally recommend starting in the stage relevant to your child’s correct age group

No worries, you can sign up to PEGS stage A2 or purchase the video only option.

Stage A starts from when your child is just 6 months old but you can start at any age, as long as the child is 6 months to 4 years old.