A message to all educators and therapists Part II

When you start talking

about my little girl

like she is 
a statistic...

you lose me.

When you start talking 

about working toward
"normalizing"

my little girl...

you lose me.

When you start going

through a checklist

of what she is

"supposed to

be doing at this age"
but she isn't...

you lose me.

When you start

making generalizations

about "Down's kids"

you lose me.

Please remember

to use people

first language.

And please remember

that not all kids

with Down syndrome

are the same. 

I have two little

girls with Down syndrome.

They are so very

different from

one another.

They have such 

different strengths

and challenges.

If I measured them

against a checklist

of things they were

supposed to be doing

at any particular

age, they would

score very differently.

And please...

while you are

talking to me about

checklists and how one of

my girls doesn't measure up

when compared to

the other kids,

please

be careful to have these

conversations with me

away from the 

always listening

ears of my little girl.

Can

you

imagine

if

you 

were

constantly

hearing

about

everything 

you 

couldn't

do?

I am aware that your

performance reviews are

partially based on

the "success" of 

my little girl

and because of

that there is a lot of

focus on developmental

checklists, emerging

skills and goals.

I hope that we can

put the checklists

aside sometimes

and focus on

my little girl

as an

individual.

Not as a comparison

against another child,

test score or 

checklist.

I hope that we
can be a team.

Signed,

A hopeful mama