God bestows beauty in the eyes of a child.
I am humbled just by looking at her (but my eyes lit up at seeing that pic -- maybe it evens out?)
Ping!
God bestows beauty in the eyes of a child.
I am humbled just by looking at her (but my eyes lit up at seeing that pic -- maybe it evens out?)
My 56 year old cousin is Downs. When he was little they generally just institutionalized these kids but John was blessed with two wonderful parents who researched and worked in the home with him throughout his childhood. I remember one therapy (I was just a kid too) - evidently Downs kids don’t naturally crawl so my aunt would spend hours doing what we would now call physical therapy with him when he was a toddler, moving his arms and legs and scooting him across the floor. Now he reads and writes, has worked for Wal-mart for probably close to 40 years and drives a car. He lives in a group home. I have a letter from him I need to answer. His parents are both gone but he has two sisters and a number of nieces and nephews who all love him.
That research is fascinating! Amazing that pharmaceuticals could mitigate some of the influences of the syndrome. And many parents may decide NOT to abort if they knew that their child could be fully independent, as an adult; I think that fear of leaving a child who cannot help him or herself, is one of the reasons many abort Down's Syndrome children.
It's not like 60 years ago, when families had enough children that one of the other siblings could care for a Down's Syndrome child after the parents died. Most families have only one or two children, so the expectation of care by a sibling isn't there, anymore.
What a beautiful child in that picture. Puts me in a good mood just from seeing her. The victory posture she has is a sign of her being happy and feeling empowered. It is not primarily a learned or conditioned response as it has been demonstrated that even blind people with no awareness of others doing this will assume this posture after making successful accomplishments.
The dilemma mentioned reminds me of the story Flowers for Algernon in a which a very happy young man with a low IQ is able to be transformed into a genius through medical science. Turns out that being smart does not make a person more likely to be happy.
I have worked closely with two associations for retarded citizens. My question has always been why hasn’t there ever been or discussed a real cure?
Cuddles?