Lillian had a lot of appointments this past week. I was the most nervous for her evaluation with Early Intervention. We found out that she's right where any other baby her age would be expected to be!
The therapists did a lot of cute little exercises with Lily. They played and sang and rolled around for about an hour. The only things Lillian is a little behind on are physical, which is good because those things are easier to teach. She did so good, that they're going to call me in two months to see if I even want them to come back.
I'm very thankful for the services that are available to children with disabilities here. Even if we don't need them right now, it was awesome to be able to find out that we don't need them! It's also great that they'll always be there if we have problems down the road.
I think that this just goes to show that it's best to treat everyone equally. Not too long ago, children with DS were thrown in nursing homes. People thought there wasn't anything we could do to help them, and so nothing was done. When I was researching DS after we found out Lillian had it, I kept coming across the new statistics that give these children a longer life expectancy, higher IQs, and a better quality of life. It isn't just because of research. My Lily has a chance at a normal life because we treat her like we would if she didn't have DS.
On that note, something pretty interesting popped up on my newsfeed.
http://www.sciencecodex.com/extra_chromosome_21_removed_from_down_syndrome_cell_line-101751
It's apparently sparking some controversy. Personally, I appreciate that they say they aren't proposing a "cure" for DS. This is simply a step forward to finding a treatment for certain things that come along with having Down Syndrome. What do you think about the study?
- Bethany
