Dr Mary Morse – the SAC’s education expert – says that schools need to take on a greater responsibility in developing social relationships among special needs pupils.

She says many people with mild CdLS and similar learning disabilities understand language but not the social implications of what they say or how they react. “They want to interact but they can’t,” she said.

“They should be ‘givers’ as well as ‘receivers’ but they will only do that if they learn about social relationships.

“In many ways, the milder affected kids have harder problems in the community than classically affected people because the expectations are so much greater.”