New Partnership: Widgit

There is no 'I' in team...

A large number of those who work for Learn and Thrive have a close connection with children and young people with Down's syndrome. They're knowledgeable, experienced and passionate about supporting the community. Without them, Learn and Thrive wouldn't succeed. However, we also owe a large part of our success to the charities and organisations that we partner with. Collaboration really is key! 

That's why we're thrilled to announce our partnership with Widgit.

About Widgit

Widgit symbols are used in a wide range of locations, including thousands of schools, healthcare settings and homes, to support communication, education and understanding. They help so many people understand key pieces of information, in order to better their understanding of the world around them.

From their origins as a family company, Widgit has always believed everybody should have fair and equal access to information, something we resonate with here at Learn and Thrive. They have a bank of over 20,000 images specifically designed to support written text, following a set of simple language rules that allow users to independently learn new concepts. The Widgit symbols are used worldwide to help users of all ages, abilities and backgrounds who have difficulty with text or communication. That's not just people with Down's syndrome, but those with other language impairments, those learning English for the first time, people in emergency situations and visitors to foreign countries... the list really does go on!

Using Widgit symbols can be extremely beneficial to people in these situations. For example, children with Down's syndrome tend to be better visual learners than they are audio learners. Studies have shown that verbal short term memory represents a particular difficulty for people with Down syndrome. However, research also suggests that their visual-spatial short term memory is as good as or better than expected.

Using visual aids, such as symbols, can be useful given their visual learning strengths, compared to their relative difficulties processing audible information. You can repeatedly show these visual aids, allowing them to make the connections to in-person objects, developing their learning and understanding.

About us and our partnership

As you may know by now, we are a new charity supporting learners with Down’s syndrome to access free, specialist support, to help them learn and thrive. We use digital tools to give a whole generation of people with Down’s syndrome access to vital learning, who may otherwise struggle to access the support they need to thrive. Covering the whole of the UK and beyond, we’re passionate about our community, and are very present and connected to those that need our support, both in person and virtually. Widgit plays a huge role in Learn and Thrive, helping us to effectively communicate directly with those that we support, as well as through our videos in our Learning For Life project.