Back, many many moons ago, when Hayden was a teensy tiny baby, he had this Downs specialist that he saw. And while I don't remember a lot about the appointments (because, hello, that was 12 years ago), the one thing that I've held onto all these years & will continue to hold onto for many more was the advice she gave me. She told me to always treat him *as if*.
.....As if one day he would be a doctor, or a teacher, or the next nobel prize winner.
....As if he would, one day, win the Olympics.
....As if he could do anything.
Because the truth of that is, the only limitations he would have would be the ones we would give him. Don't look at him and see the disability, but instead the possibility.
Over the years, we've tried to explain this to those who work with him. Sometimes they go with it, sometimes they don't. There have even been some who look at us like we're crazy because apparently we didn't get the memo that Hayden has Down Syndrome. Didn't we know that there's going to be a lot of things he just can't do?? (No, I guess I was out sick the day that memo went around.)
Reading has been one of the biggest "problem areas" we've had. A lot of those same people told us to just accept that he would never learn to read. It wouldn't happen. To which I say "ya know...at one point everyone thought the world was flat...and if you sailed far enough, you'd fall off. And those same people never thought you could fly to the moon. But here we are, living on a round planet, and no one's fallen off yet. And we've even landed on the moon."
My point. (Because I promise I have one.) It's been a long road of trial and error with the reading thing. We've tried everything. And more times than not, I end up frustrated because he's just not catching on. I think he is...he thinks he is...but he's not. (There are a lot of tears sometimes.) But this year, his teacher is on board with the "see the possibility...look at the future...see the big picture" ideas that we have. And he introduced us to the Edmark reading program, and said "what'dya think?" And Brian and I said "sure, why not? We've tried everything else. Let's do it."
At home, we work with the flashcards. We do the take home books. He works with the actual program during his school day. And slowly I've been seeing improvement. But I'll be honest...I didn't want to get too excited. I've seen it before and then I realized that it wasn't working like I'd hoped. So I just kept my fingers crossed, and my head down, and we've kept working.
But last night, Hayden and Brian and I were sitting on the couch watching that new Muppets movie. I don't know the name of it. The Muppets? Who knows...and that's totally not the point. The end of the movie came, and we were all singing and having fun to the end of the movie music. And then when it was all done, we paused the movie so it wouldn't move on to whatever was next. And this is how it went.....
Hayden: The End...
Me: yep. It's the end. {looking at the tv and realizing the screen says "The End"} Wait. What?
Hayden: {pointing to the tv} The end.
Me: Did you just read that????
Hayden: Ugh. Yes! The end!
Me: OMG! You read that?! You can read what that says?! You can read "the end"!!!!
There were high fives and hugs and all kinds of excitement, and thankfully he didn't notice the tears in my eyes. But I am so proud of him. And, even better, he is proud of himself. That's so important!
I feel like we're finally getting there. And that victory is super sweet y'all.
