Up until the 1980’s here in the United States, it was common practice for parents to be told that institutions were best suited to rear their children who had been identified as having Down Syndrome. I was floored when I learned this fact because that meant that even in my lifetime when I was born, there were children being institutionalized for having an extra gene.
It was in the 1970’s that some grassroots efforts into a novel idea of early intervention began to come on the scene and some parents were choosing a different path for their children. These pioneer parents, for whatever reason, were choosing to go against the grain and raise their children in the family home. Some of them were deciding that they would raise their child much like any parent would raise a child, and they were giving them the opportunities afforded to all children. Their efforts were succeeding and studies showed that those children who were raised in the family home actually had a higher IQ than those who were placed into an institutionalized setting. I do not know if this was a perfectly executed scientific study or not, however, common sense and life experience tells me that when rearing children you often get expect. In the event that many of these individuals were placed in an institution and were not expected to learn, grow, and become independent, they likely would not.
I have high expectations for Cedar, with some built-in level of understanding as well. I am not out of touch with reality and I realize that he will have more struggles than his typical siblings, but I expect great things. It may take him longer but I expect to homeschool him and teach him alongside his typical siblings, I expect he will have household chores as do my other children, I expect him to learn to be polite, to learn to communicate, to learn to become as independent as possible and to thrive.
I am thankful to the parents of just a generation before me who turned an about face and decided that they would start to change the way our children were treated. I am thankful that when I learned of Cedar’s diagnosis there was not pressure to place him away from our home. I am thankful that our nation has closed the doors on this dark time in our history.
We have a friend who has DS and is in his 50’s! He was raised at home, in his family. His mom went completely against the grain and all medical advice at that time. I am so thankful for parents like her who paved the way💗 He is a joy to be around and plays a vital part in our community! (We have Two children with DS ourselves, biological)
I too love the mamas who paved the way for us, the ones who listened to their hearts and had confidence that they too could do this! If it weren’t for them who knows where the rest of us would be today.