Sara is 42 years old and has three children – Charlotte who is 12 years
old, Eve is 8 and Sadie who is 6.
Sara had Charlotte at a birthing unit when she was 30 years old and did not
know before hand that Charlotte had Down’s syndrome, although the moment she was
passed her daughter she knew. This was confirmed the following day and that
Charlotte’s type of Down’s syndrome was translocation. This can because one of
the parents is a carrier of the extra chromosome, but genetic testing showed
this was not the case. Charlotte was a healthy baby with no medical
complications.
Charlotte attended weekly physio, occupational therapy and speech &
language therapy sessions and aged 2 and a half attended a Montessori nursery.
Charlotte was still not walking at this stage. However aged 4 Charlotte's sister
Eve was born. Eve walked at 9 months and a week later Charlotte stood unaided
for the first time.
Aged 5 Charlotte started a Catholic mainstream school, using the aid of a
walker. A few months later she walked on her own.
Charlotte’s is affected by having Down’s syndrome in many ways. She is
incredibly long sighted and needs to wear glasses to see. Her mobility is
effected and she finds walking challenging and tiring. She struggles with
stairs, is unable to jump, ride a bike or a scooter etc. She cannot swim
but her parents are taking her for weekly lessons juts to help get her over her
fear of being in deep water. Charlotte has many fears and is very anxious. She
won’t attend parties in case there are balloons, she won’t go to parks in case
she sees a dog, she is worried about going most places incase there is a dog or
a cat. She finds being in London very stressful because of pigeons. She prefers
her own company and to stay home and limit what she might find stressful.
When it came to a secondary high school, Charlotte’s mum Sara realised her
daughter had a severe learning disability and fought hard to prove this, using
private independent educational psychologists to confirm her disability as
severe and then went through a tribunal to get her a place at a special needs
school out of the local borough.
The tribunal was successful and Charlotte now attends Pield Heath House
High School for children with special needs.
Charlotte reads well for a child with a severe learning difficulty, has a
good vocabulary and a wonderful sense of humour and has great social skills.
Her sisters adore her and let the insults Charlotte may direct at them
when she is stressed fly over their heads. They look out for her, play with her
when she is willing and give her the space she needs at other times. They
automatically do little things for her, help her by putting toothpaste on her
brush, turning the tap, warning me quietly if they see a dog ahead, or letting
me know if Charlotte has taken a loaf of bread and is eating it under the table!
:-)
Eve summed it up when the children were asking why the moon always followed
them “oh I know Mummy, it’s because Charlotte is special’, to which I replied,
“your all special though” and Eve said “yeah but Charlotte is REALLY special
mummy” :-)