Down Syndrome Cork: When communication is a family affair 

A Cork charity offers essential speech and language therapy to children with Down syndrome. There’s also training for parents who learn skills and strategies to encourage exchanges at home, writes Helen O’Callaghan

CLOSE CONNECTION: Sophia and Harry Brassel with their mum Orla, who credits Down Syndrome Cork with giving the family an “avenue of communication” through its speech and language therapy programme. Pictures: Denis Minihane

Cork-based mum Orla Brassel was 15 weeks pregnant with son Harry when she discovered he had Down syndrome.

“The initial few weeks were just a fog – of worry, concern and fear of the unknown. I’d never had any contact with anyone with Down syndrome,” she says.