A delightful student was Abernathy Sweet! Abernathy was a child in a preschool in which I served as a volunteer. Abernathy was born with Down Syndrome, and was assumed to have a significant developmental delay, but was generally defying those expectations – particularly when it came to physical development. Abernathy was able to kick and catch a ball, throw a ball, climb on monkey bars hand over hand – while in preschool. He could run faster than most of his teachers. I was young; 16 being a teacher volunteer, and was unable to chase him down if he decided to play that game with me. Abernathy loved all of us. He was friendly and gregarious. We were mostly teaching him how to speak and articulate, as he had sounds, but no words at three years of age. I think he was learning academic skills faster than expected though. I moved away before he reached grade school age, so I am not sure where he went and what he was able to accomplish other than teaching me a deep abiding affection for those with Down Syndrome.
At that same time, I also taught in another volunteer preschool class, another three year old, Suzy, who also had Down Syndrome. Suzy was the youngest child in her family. Her parents were exceedingly well educated and Suzy was given every possible academic edge. She loved to pretend, dress up, be with peers and teachers. She assumed that everyone everywhere loved her the best! She was absolutely delightful! She was learning sign language for words like, “more”, “yes”, “no” and “toilet”. She was working on toilet training, but was not at that point not really ready for the muscle tone required for real control. She could gesture to her teachers and classmates to tell us where to stand, and when it was our turn to talk as part of her pretending.
Children are never angels
It is amazing how a non-verbal child can communicate. I spent a while pondering both of these children and wondering if they might be angels in human form, but observing the tendency to disobey their teachers with a twinkle in their eyes that spoke of clear understanding… I decided that that theory doesn’t hold water. They are created in the image of God, just as we all are, but though it appears that the genetic pattern that causes Down also is positively correlated with friendly, outgoing and sweet personalities, a sin nature is still part of everyone’s life. I’ll have to look elsewhere to find angels.
Downs Realistic Expectations
We know today that people born with Downs have a wide variety of capabilities. There have been many now who have completed college degrees, pursued professional careers that required higher level cognitive skills not previously thought possible for people with this genetic pattern. Many of us know someone with Downs who did not have the capability for even a high school education. If you have a child with Downs in your household, I would love to help you figure out what are realistic expectations that will not limit your child’s potential.