Address details


Down Syndrome NSW
Level 6/410 Church St, North Parramatta
9am-5pm Monday - Thursday
T: 9841 444


Friday 1 July 2016

Weekend reading and viewing: 2 - 3 July 2016


A year of love and joy for Jillian and Ryan
Paul Daugherty, 27 June 2016
One year ago today, Jillian Daugherty and Ryan Mavriplis exchanged wedding vows before 160 people at a nature center just outside Cincinnati. I won’t live long enough to see such a triumph again.

It’s unusual for people born with Down syndrome to get married. I’ve never understood why that is. We never thought Jillian wouldn’t get married. It took tons of work. All marriages do. It takes an ongoing effort. All marriages do. It demands love and empathy and patience. What marriage doesn’t? ...


Shaming people who hurt your kid with Down syndrome doesn't help your child
Maureen Wallace, She Knows, 28 June 2016
Being a mama bear is tough, period. But when it comes to advocating for my 6-year-old with Down syndrome, the slightest poke can feel like a searing slice through my heart. I feel so much for the mom who posted an emotional letter online after her child with a disability was the only child not invited to a classmate's birthday party. She lashed out at the other child's parents and her message went viral ...


Marc Bennetts, Newsweek, 20 June 2016
... Unlike in Western Europe and the United States, where disabled people are a highly visible part of society, Russian’s 12.5 million citizens with disabilities are a relatively rare sight in public, especially in provincial regions with less developed infrastructure. Nearly 30 percent of Russian children with disabilities such as cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and Down syndrome live in state-run orphanages, although most of them have at least one living parent.

“Russia is just beginning on the path towards the integration of people with physical and developmental disabilities into mainstream society,” says Elena Alshanskaya, head of the Volunteers to Help Orphans organization, which seeks to improve the lives of both disabled and able-bodied children abandoned by their parents. “But people are afraid of what they don’t know, of what they don’t see every day.” ...


She’s not my kid with Down syndrome, she’s my kid 
Amy Silverman, BabyCenter Guest Blogger, June 28, 2016
In a lot of ways, Sophie and I grew up together. And as she got older and I morphed from a spoiled, self-centered brat—one who used words like retard and switched lines at Safeway when I saw a bagger with special needs —into the mother of a kid with Down syndrome, I had more questions.

How was Sophie going to fit into the world? Not just my world and our family’s world, but society in general?

This was the big, unanswerable question. I had smaller ones, too. Like, how come it used to be okay to describe a person with Down syndrome as mentally retarded, but suddenly it wasn’t? Did people with Down syndrome ever get depicted in pop culture simply as themselves—or was the story always about how they had a disability? How would school work for Sophie? Would she be able to talk? To read?

Elise Sampson, Reason to Bake, 14 June 2016
... Right from the start, Carolyn would announce that she wanted to be a baker. I must admit I did not give her announcement much attention. But her job coach did listen and began to look for opportunities that would be a good fit for Carolyn. We couldn’t seem to find the right one ...

Cheryl Chan, The Province, 29 June 2016
Barely three years ago, Teresa Pocock was written off as “incapable” and banished to an old-age care home to live out the rest of her life in an institutionalized setting.

Today she is a poet and artist with a solo exhibit at Gallery Gachet that runs until Saturday.

“It’s a wonderful testament to her artistic ability,” said sister Franke James. “The artwork is fun and engaging. It expresses her discovery of the Downtown Eastside. It expresses a love of her life.”

It’s a far cry from November 2013 when Pocock, who has Down syndrome, was placed in a nursing home in Toronto against her and her father’s wishes ...






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