Raising Our Gifted Children with Sara Troy and her guest Tasha Shearer. On air from October 27th
Tasha says that raising a young child with DS is not unlike raising a neurotypical child in many ways, but there are some definitive differences that can often feel overwhelming and scary. By sharing our story about a loved one with down syndrome hopefully we can demystify and destigmatize people with DS and their families. Often the biggest barriers are not my child himself but the expectations and rigidity of those expectations that we hold in society.
Understanding Down Syndrome
Down syndrome is a genetic condition caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21. It can affect a person’s physical development, learning, and communication, but every individual has their own unique abilities, personality, and potential. With love, encouragement, understanding, and the right support, people with Down syndrome can live joyful, meaningful, and fulfilling lives.
Children with Down syndrome benefit from the same things all children need: love, belonging, encouragement, patience, stimulation, and opportunities to discover what they can do.
We sometimes focus so much on what a child might struggle with that we overlook their individuality and potential.
A child with Down syndrome is a child first. The extra chromosome is part of their biology, not the entirety of who they are. And this connects beautifully with the philosophy of self-discovery: seeing the person, not simply the condition.
They are not defined by an extra chromosome, but by who they are as individuals, with their own gifts, dreams, and contributions to our world.
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Your body is built using a massive set of instruction manuals called chromosomes, which normally come in 23 pairs (46 total). In Down syndrome, a person inherits a full or partial extra copy of chromosome 21, bringing the total to 47. Having three sets of instructions instead of two causes those specific genes to work overtime, producing an excess of certain proteins. Because chromosome 21 carries hundreds of genes active in nearly all tissues during early development, this overload alters the signals shaping the brain, heart, digestive tract, and facial features all at once.
I have never intimately known someone with DS before having Louie, many things were a learning curve for me. I just want to normalize this genetic difference, normalize my family and this life.
https://www.facebook.com/NatShea
Down Syndrome Resource Foundation- https://dsrf.org
Canadian Down Syndrome Society- https://cdss.ca
America. National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS)
https://dsrf.org/resources/the-lowdown-podcast
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