Does any parent with an adult child that has down syndrome have any insight on raising a child with ds?

Question

Does any parent with an adult child that has down syndrome have any insight on raising a child with ds?

Answer 1

Plenty of them!!!!  

Let them makes mistakes and take risks - experience failure - do not protect them from it. They will experience failure eventually like we all do, but they need to know how to keep going.

Never say never. If they want to do something - find a way that they can do some small portion of it if not the whole thing. Take things one step at time - you never know where it might lead.

Teach them to do laundry by sorting when they are toddlers - they should do their own laundry by teenage years.

Whatever you let them get away with as little kids they will have difficulty unlearning later - so think about table manners and language and behaviors and being an adult.  If adults don't do it- neither does your 5 year old.

Teach them to cook and let them cook for you. Start with heating up canned spaghetti and graduate upwards. Learn to appreciate too soggy spaghetti and salty sauce. Eventually they will learn to cook better- even well - and you will welcome their night to cook.

Teach them to drive. The important thing about driving is saying you can - not that you actually drive the car anywhere. It is a right of passage. And there might be an emergency someday and it might just be the difference between life and death.

Teach them pride in Down syndrome. Do not be afraid to say the words. Point out new babies with Down syndrome you see joyfully.

My son is 24. I was told he would never do anything! He has his own business, he has his own studio apartment, he does all his own laundry and cleaning, he is dictating a book, he does 50% of the cooking, and people say to me all the time I am lucky he has only mild Down syndrome. Yet, he has an IQ of 43 (far from mild) and cannot read or count.

Adaptive and social skills are essential for independence and nothing is more important in the long term.

Answer 2

I'm not a parent, but I am a college student with an older brother who has Downs. I am majoring in special education, and have spent a lot of time talking with my mom about my brother.

Insight? I guess the best thing I can tell you is to recognize your child for the blessing that he or she is. This might sound cliched, but a child with Downs is like a ray of sunshine in what is sometimes an otherwise bleak world. Children with Downs are some of the happiest kids you will ever meet, always there with a smile, a hug, and an "I love you."

I once heard someone speculate that children with Downs are really "spies for God," and I think it's true. They are amazing, caring, beautiful people, and I think they understand a lot more than we might give them credit for.

Good luck :)

Answer 3

I have a two year old who have ds. He is very alert and energetic, simply because i do not treat him and different than i do my other children, he is very much apart of and knows that he is an important member in our family.My husband and i read a lot for him and we allow him to help out with his baby sister. you know pass things, holds her with supervision. Just do not treat the child any different to your other children it is working for me.