Down Syndrome Awareness Month continues with a quick post about setting high expectations...
I am constantly pushing people that interact with Sweet Pea to have high expectations for her as she will more often than not, rise to the occasion. It may take a little longer, but she gets there. As good as I am about pushing other people to believe in her, I'm guilty of babying her as well. This is a perfect example...
Just a few days ago I posted a video of Sweet Pea "Swinging with Style". I posted it because it was a cute video of her having a blast and being her quirky little self. What I didn't realize is that I was not pushing her to be the best that she could be. Every time we would go to the park, I'd automatically put her in the baby swings...the ones that you can put a 6 month old baby in without worrying that they will fall out. All typical 3 year olds are in the big kid swings that require them to hold on in order to avoid injury. I had tried the big swings a couple of times, but without any expectation that she would be able to do it. I would set her on it, hover over her and when she would immediately say "all done" I would move her to the baby swing.
We were at a park the other day and it only had one baby swing which was being used by another child and someone else was already waiting in line for it. I had both girls with me and there were two big kid swings available so I figured why not try. It was sand below so if they fell it wouldn't hurt too terribly bad...hopefully. I put both girls on their swings and pushed them lightly and they had a blast! They even performed a safer (thankfully) rendition of their swinging with style kicking! I was so proud of both of them! (Video link)
I happened to volunteer at Sweet Pea's school a few days after that park experience and I asked the aides who assist Sweet Pea on the playground if they had worked on that with her. They readily admitted that they had, but that it was Sweet Pea who had requested it and that she now asks them to push her higher! To hear that Sweet Pea is advocating for herself and is asking others to both figuratively and literally push her higher makes me such a proud Mommy!
I need to take a lesson from her (again) and not let myself get stuck in the routine and continue to take the safe path. I need to keep pushing the envelope with her as even I don't know where she can go and what she can do. I do know that she can do a heck of a lot more than I ever imagined when we were first handed her diagnosis and I need to keep that in mind every minute of every day. If I want others to see her as the capable individual that she is, I need to also!
Monday, October 8, 2012
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Friendship Circle: Day at the Fair
We are so lucky that we have a Friendship Circle chapter in our area! For those of you who don't know what the Friendship Circle is: "The Friendship Circle exists to bring happiness and companionship to children and young adults with special needs by celebrating their uniqueness and individuality; to create renewed strength, comfort and peace of mind to the families of these special individuals; to foster the values of altruism, compassion and acceptance among teen volunteers and to heighten community
awareness, sensitivity and encourage a sense of responsibility and
involvement. It is our belief that every person is precious and capable
of love, connection and friendship." They partner typical teenagers with children with special needs and it gives our kids a chance to be a regular kid having fun with another kid instead of their parent/teacher/therapist. Sweet Pea hasn't attended many of their events as she is still at the low end of the age spectrum that they work with, but I know that she will attend a lot more events over the next few (okay...many) years ahead.
Today a fair in a nearby city opened up their kids zone area to the Friendship Circle an hour before it opened to the public. After Daddy and Mommy played with both girls for awhile, Sweet Pea was paired up with two wonderful high school girls and they took her on numerous slides, bounce houses, velcro walls, reptile exhibit, etc. Sweet Pea had never met these girls before, but she took to them quite quickly and had a blast. She didn't even look around for Mommy or Daddy!
This may be photo overload...but I just don't care. :-)
Angel got to play too:
Daddy took both his girls up this slide a few times before we learned that they could both do it by themselves. We would go behind them just to keep them safe from a serious fall and from the other kids that would be rushing up behind them, but they were both able to navigate the ladder.
Don't let this picture fool you, Angel was having a blast on the slide:
Sweet Pea preferred to be escorted down, but loved it also:
Here are her high school friends that were helping her maneuver another climbing wall:
Unrelated, but I love beach volleyball and we saw USA's gold medalist Kerry Walsh with her son enjoying the fair as well:
After Sweet Pea's time with her friends was over we tried out the petting zoo. She stuck her hand into the cage of rabbits! When Daddy picked one up she enjoyed petting it and even held it for a second. While she didn't pet anything else, she was at least tolerant of the little goats, chickens, ducks, and sheep that were there.
And although this photo doesn't go with the fair per se, this is what happens to Angel after a long morning at the fair and then Daddy forgetting to put her down for a nap while Mommy was out playing softball. She fell asleep leaning on the ottoman of their rocking chair!
Today a fair in a nearby city opened up their kids zone area to the Friendship Circle an hour before it opened to the public. After Daddy and Mommy played with both girls for awhile, Sweet Pea was paired up with two wonderful high school girls and they took her on numerous slides, bounce houses, velcro walls, reptile exhibit, etc. Sweet Pea had never met these girls before, but she took to them quite quickly and had a blast. She didn't even look around for Mommy or Daddy!
This may be photo overload...but I just don't care. :-)
Angel got to play too:
And boy is she a daredevil! She would climb up the slide side and fall
down the ladder side...again...and again...and be laughing the whole
time!
Don't let this picture fool you, Angel was having a blast on the slide:
Sweet Pea preferred to be escorted down, but loved it also:
Here are her high school friends that were helping her maneuver another climbing wall:
After Sweet Pea's time with her friends was over we tried out the petting zoo. She stuck her hand into the cage of rabbits! When Daddy picked one up she enjoyed petting it and even held it for a second. While she didn't pet anything else, she was at least tolerant of the little goats, chickens, ducks, and sheep that were there.
And although this photo doesn't go with the fair per se, this is what happens to Angel after a long morning at the fair and then Daddy forgetting to put her down for a nap while Mommy was out playing softball. She fell asleep leaning on the ottoman of their rocking chair!
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Trampolines!
Let it be known that both of my little girls LOVE trampolines. The bigger the trampoline the better! Don't worry grandparents...we aren't getting one. It is great that they both get to play on one when we go to Sweet Pea's OT sessions, which we are currently doing twice a week for sensory issues. As soon as we pull into the parking lot Sweet Pea starts saying and signing "jump". We walk into the building and the girls make a beeline for the trampoline. One day one of the therapists was using it with a client and as soon as we walked in the door the therapist hollered over to us that they were getting out so Sweet Pea could use it. To say that they adore Sweet Pea is an understatement and we are beyond blessed to have them in our lives.
It's been fun to watch Sweet Pea learn to bounce, then actually jump and now she can do a few jumps in a row. She is jumping on solid ground pretty well now too. She can probably jump forward about 8 inches consistently and her March 2013 IEP goal is 12 inches so she is well on her way to achieving that goal. She is jumping off all sorts of stuff now also. She often likes a hand to hold, but will do it on her own when she is in the right mood. Sweet Pea's moods should be a whole different post, but I'm not sure I'm up for posting about that roller coaster ride!
Enjoy this little video of Sweet Pea and Angel playing around on the trampoline:
It's been fun to watch Sweet Pea learn to bounce, then actually jump and now she can do a few jumps in a row. She is jumping on solid ground pretty well now too. She can probably jump forward about 8 inches consistently and her March 2013 IEP goal is 12 inches so she is well on her way to achieving that goal. She is jumping off all sorts of stuff now also. She often likes a hand to hold, but will do it on her own when she is in the right mood. Sweet Pea's moods should be a whole different post, but I'm not sure I'm up for posting about that roller coaster ride!
Enjoy this little video of Sweet Pea and Angel playing around on the trampoline:
Friday, October 5, 2012
Social Skills
Many people think that all people with Down syndrome are social and outgoing. Unfortunately, that is not the case with Sweet Pea. She is social in that she is friendly and responds to people when spoken to, but primarily in familiar settings. Sweet Pea doesn't initiate social interactions nor does she know how to maintain an interaction if started by a peer. Most of this is likely the result of her speech delay as it is hard to carry on conversations when you are extremely limited in what you can say and even more limited in what others understand.
While we have years of struggle ahead of us in the speech world, we are working on some other social skills that she can master now. She can (and will) learn to look people in the eye when they speak to her and when she speaks to them, how to take turns and share in these classes, how to request help and express her feelings, etc.
Like her other classes, for the most part she thinks these are fun. When they aren't out in the community they are in a therapy facility that has ball pits, climbing stuff, trampolines, etc. Lots of fun stuff that keeps her very happy. We had an issue with her original class because there was a child that ended up scaring her, but now that we have switched to another class she is doing much better again. This new class even has a couple of girls which I think is very helpful as well. The classes are small and only have about 4 or 5 kids and there are always two teachers.
Here are some photos of Sweet Pea's first bowling experience. She had a blast! She had to wear her regular tennis shoes because they didn't have bowling shoes in a small enough size for her.
While we have years of struggle ahead of us in the speech world, we are working on some other social skills that she can master now. She can (and will) learn to look people in the eye when they speak to her and when she speaks to them, how to take turns and share in these classes, how to request help and express her feelings, etc.
Like her other classes, for the most part she thinks these are fun. When they aren't out in the community they are in a therapy facility that has ball pits, climbing stuff, trampolines, etc. Lots of fun stuff that keeps her very happy. We had an issue with her original class because there was a child that ended up scaring her, but now that we have switched to another class she is doing much better again. This new class even has a couple of girls which I think is very helpful as well. The classes are small and only have about 4 or 5 kids and there are always two teachers.
Here are some photos of Sweet Pea's first bowling experience. She had a blast! She had to wear her regular tennis shoes because they didn't have bowling shoes in a small enough size for her.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Swinging With Style
Having Down syndrome certainly doesn't take away Sweet Pea's case of the sillies. This video is just one of many that make me laugh every time I see it, although it is extra special because Grandpa L & Grandma J were here to share it with us.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Sweet Pea Proving "Them" Wrong
When Sweet Pea was in the NICU on one of her first few days in this world, we met with a genetic counselor to go over what her having Down syndrome meant. How I wish that I hadn't had that meeting! Our genetic counselor was from the dark ages clearly! He told us in very clear words that she would never learn to read, write or ride a bike. We didn't know how 100% wrong he was at the time and that made her diagnosis that much harder on us. I mean, come on, those are fairly basic skills in life and if our daughter wasn't going to be able to do those things, what would she be able to do? (I'm tearing up just writing about this even after 3 years!) I've since learned that those 3 items aren't the end all, be all of life, but at the time they certainly seemed critical. Thank goodness he couldn't have been more wrong. Unfortunately I've heard that our experience was far from unique and I am glad that there is a strong push within the Down syndrome community to change how genetic counselors speak with parents about their children who have Down syndrome.
At the ripe old age of 3, Sweet Pea is already starting to read! Way to prove him wrong! (Oh, and yes, I am finally getting the nerve to write him a letter and show him how wrong he was so that hopefully he doesn't make life as hard on any other new parents.)
As part of Down Syndrome Awareness Month I want to show that Sweet Pea is more alike than different and in some ways she is ahead of some of her typical peers. Not very many 3 year olds can read, but Sweet Pea is on her way as this video will show:
We use a combination of sources for teaching her to read. It started when she was quite young with using the See and Learn First Words flashcards. (You can see an old video of her doing the matching steps here and another video of her naming all the flashcards here). Sweet Pea loved going through the flashcards and learned the More First Words set even faster than the first set. It was during this time that we started introducing the See and Learn First Written Words to Sweet Pea and she really enjoyed them as well. We have since added a few different books into the mix from the DSFOC Learning Program collection. On top of that I have attended trainings by Terry Brown of So Happy To Learn and also Natalie Hale of Special Reads for Special Needs. I've learned great tips at each of these trainings and between these trainings and ideas from Grandma I know that Sweet Pea has a bright reading future ahead of her.
Yes, Sweet Pea is pretty young to be learning to read, but she LOVES doing it so we are encouraging it, but not pushing it. We know that we are very lucky that Sweet Pea has the internal motivation to want to learn. We are told quite often by her teachers how lucky we are and what a joy she is to have in their classes because of that desire to learn.
Kids with Down syndrome might take longer to learn some things, but in their own time and in their own way, they will do it!
At the ripe old age of 3, Sweet Pea is already starting to read! Way to prove him wrong! (Oh, and yes, I am finally getting the nerve to write him a letter and show him how wrong he was so that hopefully he doesn't make life as hard on any other new parents.)
As part of Down Syndrome Awareness Month I want to show that Sweet Pea is more alike than different and in some ways she is ahead of some of her typical peers. Not very many 3 year olds can read, but Sweet Pea is on her way as this video will show:
We use a combination of sources for teaching her to read. It started when she was quite young with using the See and Learn First Words flashcards. (You can see an old video of her doing the matching steps here and another video of her naming all the flashcards here). Sweet Pea loved going through the flashcards and learned the More First Words set even faster than the first set. It was during this time that we started introducing the See and Learn First Written Words to Sweet Pea and she really enjoyed them as well. We have since added a few different books into the mix from the DSFOC Learning Program collection. On top of that I have attended trainings by Terry Brown of So Happy To Learn and also Natalie Hale of Special Reads for Special Needs. I've learned great tips at each of these trainings and between these trainings and ideas from Grandma I know that Sweet Pea has a bright reading future ahead of her.
Yes, Sweet Pea is pretty young to be learning to read, but she LOVES doing it so we are encouraging it, but not pushing it. We know that we are very lucky that Sweet Pea has the internal motivation to want to learn. We are told quite often by her teachers how lucky we are and what a joy she is to have in their classes because of that desire to learn.
Kids with Down syndrome might take longer to learn some things, but in their own time and in their own way, they will do it!
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
DS Awareness Month: Random Fact #1
This is from an amazing blogger, Bethany, who blogs at http://www.ourperfectlyimperfectlife.com:
Fact: The incidence of births of children with Down syndrome increases with the age of the mother. But due to higher fertility rates in younger women, 80% of children with Down syndrome are born to women under 35 years of age. Many people incorrectly think that babies with Down syndrome are only born to older moms. ♥
Fact: The incidence of births of children with Down syndrome increases with the age of the mother. But due to higher fertility rates in younger women, 80% of children with Down syndrome are born to women under 35 years of age. Many people incorrectly think that babies with Down syndrome are only born to older moms. ♥
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