Janet Carr obituary

Psychologist whose 50-year study transformed attitudes to people with Down's syndrome

In 1964, Janet Carr, a clinical psychologist, was asked to work on a follow-up study of 54 six-week-old babies with Down's syndrome at the Maudsley hospital in London. Initially Carr, who has died aged 92, was going to track the children only until they were four, but it became one of the longest follow-up studies in the world.

In 2014, a party was held at the House of Lords to celebrate the study running for 50 years. Chris Oliver, the director of the Cerebra centre for neurodevelopmental disorders at Birmingham University, commented: The longest follow-up studies we have are usually five to seven years. So that 50-year follow-up is absolutely remarkable."