World Down Syndrome Day

The medical term for Down syndrome being trisomy 21, due to a triplicate of the 21st chromosome, makes today a great day to celebrate all those with designer genes of the 21st variety - it's March 21 or 3/21.

A couple weeks ago Tristan was looking at the calendar and saw the day marked (Thanks Casey for the awesome calendars!).  He asked what we were going to do to celebrate - he wasn't just going to let the day pass by.  T asked his teacher if we could bring Eisley in and do a little education about DS.  Of course Keira wanted to jump on the bandwagon and have us visit her class too. 

Can I just say I love my kids and how they completely embrace what Eisley has brought to our family?  I told Tristan I was really proud of him for wanting to share with his friends about his sister that some people might be embarrased or want to keep it a secret.  He looked at me like I said 2+2=5 and said, "she's just my sister, it's not like she's an alien." 

So it was set, we visited the kindergarten classes first.  We talked about differences.  The differences they saw about Eisley (in true kindergartner fashion):

• She's small
• She's wearing a pink bow
• Her shoes are really tiny
• She wears a diaper

That just made my day!  We talked about some typical DS markers like the hand crease or toe gap "made for flip-flops" or almond eyes.  We also talked about special things we all can do well.  The kids were enthusiastic to share some of their talents and we talked about Eisley's - like her "flexibility", her ability to make anyone smile, touching her nose with her tongue.  And of course similarities like playing with legos (a big kindergarten favorite!), giving hugs and shaking maracas.  Keira read the book My Friend Isabelle to the classes.  We wrapped up talking about how everyone just wants to have friends and be accepted.

After about 1/2 an hour we moved on to the other end of the school and talked to the 5th grade class.  Eisley fell asleep waiting for them to come in from recess and would not wake up.  We talked about some of the same things with them as before, but more detailed information about the medical info.  I thought of an analogy for DS compared to a story problem in math - sometimes when you have extra information you get confused and do the wrong thing.  They had just reviewed the circulatory system in science so we talked about Eisley's heart defect and how they fixed it.

We had a few activities for the kids to do, first they all put cotton in their ears to simulate what it's like to have a hearing deficit.

Then they put a sock on their nondominate hand and wrote their name - trying to simulate hypotonia and how much more you had to try and work at it to get the job done.

Finally E woke up and charmed them all with clapping and waving.  The kids had great questions like Is there a cure? and Can you take a medicine to fix it?  or How about new research being done to prevent it?  Some smart kids really thinking!

We wanted Tristan to participate and tell his class what he thought about having a sister with DS and decided an interview would be the best way.  I prepped him ahead of time with the questions so he knew what to expect.  He talked about what he's learned, what she can do that he's proud of and what he wants people to know about DS.  In the end he had the message down without any prompting - that we want those who have DS to be accepted and included.

This was a great experience for our family and I'm so grateful that the teachers let us share with the students.