Connection Blog http://dsconnection.3nerds.com/blog.php Community Award: Organization of the Year <p><img title="28870244_1673672626004451_5483450634799705448_n.jpg" src="../images/site/28870244_1673672626004451_5483450634799705448_n.jpg" alt="28870244_1673672626004451_5483450634799705448_n.jpg" width="350" height="314" /></p> <p><img title="Community_Award.jpg" src="../images/site/Community_Award.jpg" alt="Community_Award.jpg" width="350" height="233" /></p> <p>We were honored to receive a Community Award from the Danville Area Chamber of Commerce. <span>DSCBA Chairman of the Board Tom Delaplane (2nd from right) and our Founder Martha Hogan (4th from right) accepted our award for Charitable Organization of the Year at the annual State of the Town event on March 15, 2018!! What a great start to our 20th Anniversary. Thank you to all who voted for us and to the Danville Area Chamber of Commerce.</span></p> http://dsconnection.3nerds.com/blog.php?id=community-award-organization-of-the-year&search_type=NAME 2018-03-20 We Are Renovating <h1 class="size-34" lang="x-size-34"><strong>WE ARE RENOVATING!&nbsp;</strong></h1> <p><strong><img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="c6382e4828f742418863792c34de1b7b.png" src="../images/site/c6382e4828f742418863792c34de1b7b.png" alt="c6382e4828f742418863792c34de1b7b.png" width="320" height="400" /></strong></p> <p class="size-18" lang="x-size-18">Thanks to a very generous capital grant from The Joseph and Vera Long Foundation and the&nbsp;kindness of&nbsp;Smart and Final,&nbsp;Danville Rotary, Danville Sycamore&nbsp;Rotary, and the&nbsp;San Ramon Valley Kiwanis&nbsp;we are excited to&nbsp;have the opportunity to update our DSCBA office at 101-J Town and Country Drive in Danville.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p class="size-24" lang="x-size-24"><em><strong><span>Our&nbsp;Danville office space&nbsp;will be temporarily&nbsp;closed from August 1st, 2017 through October 31st with an estimated&nbsp;</span></strong></em><span><em><strong>reopen date of November 1st, 2017.&nbsp;</strong></em>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="size-18" lang="x-size-18"><span><strong>BUT WAIT</strong></span>.... this does&nbsp;<strong>NOT</strong>&nbsp;affect our programs and services!&nbsp;&nbsp; Our staff is working hard offsite and we have arranged for our programs to&nbsp;be held&nbsp;at local locations.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p class="size-22" lang="x-size-22"><strong>THE BENEFITS OF OUR REMODEL PROJECT:</strong></p> <p class="size-18" lang="x-size-18">-&nbsp;EXPANDED CLASSROOM SPACE - to accommodate programs as well as largely attended workshops for educators/parents.</p> <p class="size-18" lang="x-size-18">- ADDITIONAL OFFICE SPACE - to be used for therapy and other consultative services.</p> <p class="size-18" lang="x-size-18">- KITCHEN - to be used for life skills&nbsp;training and art projects.</p> <p class="size-18" lang="x-size-18"><strong>BE SURE TO</strong>... keep checking our website for updated&nbsp;program dates/times/locations.&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://downsyndromeconnectionofthebayarea.createsend1.com/t/j-l-ukdltdt-l-y/" target="_blank">www.dsconnection.org</a></p> <p class="size-18" lang="x-size-18"><strong>HOW TO REACH US</strong>... Just like you always did!&nbsp; Call us 925-362-8660 or email us&nbsp;<a href="mailto:dscba@dsconnection.org" target="_blank">dscba@dsconnection.org</a></p> http://dsconnection.3nerds.com/blog.php?id=we-are-renovating&search_type=NAME 2017-07-31 Book Review: Beauty Exposed <h4><span>A book review from Cathleen Small on <em>Beauty Exposed </em>by Chloe Goulding<em>.</em>&nbsp;This book is available in our Lending Library.</span></h4> <p>Chloe put together the book when she was a teenager&mdash;and the sister of two adopted younger siblings with Down syndrome. It&rsquo;s a self-published book, so it hasn&rsquo;t gone through the editorial process of a major publisher, and&nbsp;you need to overlook some minor errors here and there, but overall it&rsquo;s quite well done.</p> <p>I love the concept: Chloe collected written recollections of siblings of people with Down syndrome to create the book. She divided it up into a few sections, mostly by age. There are stories from young children (around seven years of age), stories from pre-teens, stories from teens, and stories from adults. All of them grew up (or are growing up) with a sibling with Down syndrome, and they are all refreshingly candid in their thoughts on what that&rsquo;s like.</p> <p>A couple of things I really like about the book:</p> <ul> <li>Chloe didn&rsquo;t correct the spelling/grammar of the youngest kids, so&nbsp;<em>most</em>&nbsp;of the stories from the young siblings come across as quite authentic. (There&rsquo;s one where a parent clearly helped the child write it, and that was actually my least favorite&mdash;my favorites were the ones where you could tell the child was just speaking from the heart.)</li> <li>Although Chloe speaks glowingly of her siblings in her&nbsp;<em>own&nbsp;</em>story, she allows the other siblings in the book to speak realistically. Some are equally glowing, but others are honest about challenges they faced growing up as the sibling of someone with an intellectual disability. I liked that Chloe allowed them their honesty. I think siblings who read the book and who&nbsp;<em>are&nbsp;</em>struggling in one way or another will be glad to not feel alone that they don&rsquo;t love Down syndrome all the time. Because let&rsquo;s face it: Even those of us&mdash;like me&mdash;who wouldn&rsquo;t take away Down syndrome even if we could have our days where we feel disheartened by something related to it&mdash;a medical struggle, a communication struggle, etc. And it&rsquo;s good to know we&rsquo;re not alone at those times.</li> <li>The overall message of the book was quite positive. Even the siblings who admitted to sometimes struggling voiced their feeling that overall, they love their sibling and are glad to have them as part of their life. They acknowledged the plusses that come from growing up with someone with Down syndrome as part of your life&mdash;even while being honest about it sometimes being a mixed blessing.</li> </ul> <p>My Theo isn&rsquo;t quite old enough for the book yet&mdash;there&rsquo;s nothing in it that a nine-year-old&nbsp;<em>shouldn&rsquo;t&nbsp;</em>read, but he just doesn&rsquo;t yet have the attention span for it. But when he is older, it is definitely one I will share with him so he can see the perspective of others who walk in his shoes and have a sibling with Down syndrome. Because I can talk for days about what it&rsquo;s like to be the&nbsp;<em>mother</em>&nbsp;of a person with Down syndrome, but I can&rsquo;t stand in Theo&rsquo;s shoes and know what it&rsquo;s like to be the&nbsp;<em>brother&mdash;</em>the upsides and the downsides.</p> <p>My hat goes off to Chloe Goulding for putting together a much-needed book for the sometimes forgotten people in this community&mdash;the siblings!</p> <p><span>Read more of Cathleen's writings on her blog:&nbsp;<a href="http://foursmalls.com/" target="_blank">foursmalls.com</a>.</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> http://dsconnection.3nerds.com/blog.php?id=book-review-beauty-exposed&search_type=NAME 2017-05-17 Book Review: Supporting Positive Behavior in Children and Teens With Down Syndrome <h4><span style="color: #3f2860;">A book review from Cathleen Small on&nbsp;<em>Supporting Positive Behavior in Children and Teens With Down Syndrome: The Respond but Don't React Method.</em>&nbsp;This book is available in our Lending Library.</span></h4> <p>My sweet little Sam, apple of my eye, is due to start kindergarten in the fall. And while he&rsquo;s&nbsp;<em>mostly&nbsp;</em>an agreeable, easygoing child, he definitely has his moments of being stubborn and strong-willed. Which, in the long run, is probably a good trait (or at least, that&rsquo;s what I tell myself with both of my kids!). However, particularly when your child is delayed in expressive communication skills, any sorts of challenging behaviors can get to a point where they&rsquo;re difficult to redirect. And while I don&rsquo;t expect Sam to be perfectly behaved (what child is?!), I also would like to address any particularly challenging behaviors&nbsp;<em>before&nbsp;</em>he starts kindergarten, so he can be as successful as possible in his new classroom.</p> <p>That&rsquo;s where&nbsp;<em><a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Supporting-Positive-Behavior-Children-Syndrome/dp/1606132636/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1488759819&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=supporting+positive+behavior+in+children+and+teens+with+down+syndrome" target="_blank">Supporting Positive Behavior in&nbsp;Children and Teens with Down Syndrome: The Respond but Don&rsquo;t React Method&nbsp;</a></em>comes in. I had heard really good things about this book, and it&rsquo;s an easy read so I was interested to try it.</p> <p>After finishing it, I can definitely say that this book will remain on my bookshelf for years to come. Reading it one time through was really&nbsp;useful because it gives an overview of&nbsp;<em>why&nbsp;</em>children with Down syndrome tend to react in certain ways to challenging situations. It talks about brain structure and how certain things are processed in the brain and why that&rsquo;s different in a person with Down syndrome, and also about learning and processing styles of people with Down syndrome. Really, I can sum it up like this:</p> <p>Delays in processing (particularly auditory processing) + difficulty with short-term memory + visual learning style = children who learn best with&nbsp;<em>many&nbsp;</em>visual supports and much repetition, plus manageable bites of information</p> <p>But the book is a keeper long term because it covers in detail some behaviors that are typical in children with Down syndrome. For example, bolting. This is not a&nbsp;<em>huge&nbsp;</em>problem with Sam, but it&nbsp;<em>is&nbsp;</em>something he&rsquo;ll do. For example, he ran away from us today in Target. No harm done, as he was in a store and we were right behind him. But what if that were a parking lot? Or a busy street?</p> <p>The book explains the best way to handle that specific behavior. (Spoiler alert: Do&nbsp;<em>not&nbsp;</em>react strongly! Remain calm and do not show your fear or upset.)</p> <p>Another common behavior in the DS word: everyone&rsquo;s favorite&nbsp;Flop and Drop! You know, when your kid goes all dead weight and flops to the ground? It&rsquo;s not so bad when you&rsquo;re talking about a little two-year-old who can easily be picked up and tossed over your shoulder like a sack of potatoes. But what about a fifty-pound seven-year-old? Much more challenging! The book explains the best way to handle that one, too.</p> <p>Other common behaviors are covered, too, though I won&rsquo;t detail them all here. Suffice it to say, for the most common challenging behaviors for kids with DS, the book talks about specifically how to handle them. I can see myself referring to this book again and again over the years, as we move through different phases with Sam.</p> <p>By the way, in case you&rsquo;re curious: The &ldquo;respond but don&rsquo;t react&rdquo; part comes from the processing delays in people (especially kids) with Down syndrome. Because auditory processing is difficult for many, many people with DS (who are notoriously visual learners&ndash;obviously this is not true for&nbsp;<em>everyone&nbsp;</em>with DS, but many studies have shown that&nbsp;<em>most&nbsp;</em>people with DS are visual learners; I&rsquo;m taking an online education course about teaching children with DS right now, and it emphasizes the same thing), if you react with emotion and tell them something, they may not understand what you&rsquo;re telling them&ndash;all they know is that you&rsquo;re responding with&nbsp;<em>emotion</em>, and emotion is fun! It doesn&rsquo;t matter what words you&rsquo;re saying, because they may not be processing all of them anyway&mdash;but they know you&rsquo;re emotional! So instead, a better approach is to simply respond with no emotion and redirect.</p> <p>This is kind of an interesting shift for Chris and me, since we had to parent Theo with&nbsp;<em>exaggerated</em>&nbsp;emotion. He struggled to read emotions and body language for a long time, and we eventually learned that the best way to make him understand was to exaggerate whatever emotion (fear, hurt, anger) his behavior prompted. Which isn&rsquo;t to say we flew into a rage when we wanted to show him we were angry because he chose to misbehave&mdash;but we had to make it very clear that we were&nbsp;<em>angry&nbsp;</em>and not amused. With Sam, apparently, we should do the exact opposite&mdash;downplay our emotional response pretty much entirely.</p> <p>Anyway, I&rsquo;ve been playing around with it and trying the strategies in the book&ndash;both the responding without reacting, and the suggestions for many, many visual supports&ndash;and I&rsquo;m pleased to say it&rsquo;s working well! Sam had been really fighting the morning routine, and I&rsquo;ve now started using a visual support for each step, and he is much more amenable to it. That&rsquo;s not to say there&rsquo;s&nbsp;<em>no&nbsp;</em>protest, but it&rsquo;s much less than it was. Hallelujah! (In case you&rsquo;re curious, the visual support I&rsquo;m using is one the book&rsquo;s author recommended: an app called First-Then. It allows you to create step-by-step routines of picture cards on your phone or iPad that your child can swipe through as they complete them. So for the morning routine, we have: Take PJs off, put pants on, put shirt on, take medicine, eat breakfast, put on socks and shoes. Seeing the picture cards for each step on my phone seems to motivate Sam and lessen his resistance, just as the book&rsquo;s author predicted.)</p> <p>Anyway, definitely a recommended addition to your library if you have a child with Down syndrome! The strategies are simple to implement and very common-sense.</p> <p>Read more of Cathleen's writings on her blog:&nbsp;<a href="http://foursmalls.com/" target="_blank">foursmalls.com</a>.</p> http://dsconnection.3nerds.com/blog.php?id=book-review-supporting-positive-behavior-in-children-and-teens-with-down-syndrome&search_type=NAME 2017-03-12 Share the Spirit <p><span><img title="Photo credit: Anda Chu/Staff Photos, Bay Area News Group" src="../images/site/STS-cover-photo.jpg" alt="STS" width="350" height="233" /></span></p> <p><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo Credit: Anda Chu/Staff Photos, Bay Area News Group</span></em></p> <p>So often we hear about how our open door and welcoming hearts provide the help and hope that many families have difficulty finding in other places. At the DSCBA, we aim to empower, inspire, and support all individuals with Down syndrome and their families, friends, care givers, teachers, therapists, and others in our community. Participating in DSCBA programs early-on can result in truly positive, life-changing benefits for children with Down syndrome and their families. New and experienced families are drawn together to share stories of success, support one another in challenging times, and celebrate the joy that our loved ones with Down syndrome bring us. We understand one another and we advocate for inclusion and acceptance. We learn that we are not alone.</p> <p>On Thanksgiving Day, our music therapy program was featured on the cover of the East Bay Times as part of their Share the Spirit partnership with the Bay Area News Group and the Contra Costa Crisis Center. Read our story here: <a href="http://www.sharethespiriteastbay.org/bay-area-nonprofit-supports-people-with-down-syndrome-and-their-families/" target="_blank">http://www.sharethespiriteastbay.org/bay-area-nonprofit-supports-people-with-down-syndrome-and-their-families/</a></p> <p>This story is but one example of the grassroots efforts we make each and every day to share with the greater Bay Area community that individuals with Down syndrome are much like you and me. We all dance, laugh, cry, and love. We educate medical professionals and law makers on the importance of inclusion. We partner with educators and therapists to provide research-based best-practices on educating our children. We support new parents with up-to-date, accurate information on DS. We work hard to ensure the lives of individuals with Down syndrome are the filled with meaningful relationships, activities and employment. And we will continue working now and into the future to empower, inspire, and support our loved ones with Down syndrome.</p> <p>We hope that this holiday season fills you with joy that outshines the sun itself. Thank you for your ongoing support of the DSCBA.</p> <p>Share the Spirit Grant Program&rsquo;s mission is to enhance the November/December holiday season for the most needy residents of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties by helping to fund nonprofit holiday programs and outreach.</p> <p><span>&nbsp;</span></p> http://dsconnection.3nerds.com/blog.php?id=share-the-spirit&search_type=NAME 2016-12-05 Business Spotlight: Bean Plant Co. <h2><span style="color: #3f2860;">Business Spotlight: Bean Plant Co.</span></h2> <p><img title="Nina-Jellema-and-Sunny.jpg" src="../images/site/Nina-Jellema-and-Sunny.jpg" alt="Nina-Jellema-and-Sunny.jpg" width="250" height="333" /></p> <p>(Pictured: Nina and daughter, Sunny)</p> <p>Local business owner Carissa Clark is a big supporter of the Down Syndrome Connection. After establishing Bean Plant Co. in 2015, a home-sewn, ethically produced line of clothing for children, Carissa quickly realized that she wanted to give back to her community in a meaningful way by donating a portion of profits to a charity in the San Francisco Bay Area.</p> <p>Carissa reached out to her followers on social media for suggestions of a local non-profit organization to support. She received many wonderful responses and ultimately chose the DSCBA based on the recommendation of Nina Jellema, a Bean Plant Co. customer and also a member of the DSCBA. Nina's daughter, Sunny, has Down syndrome; she and the entire Jellema family have received invaluable support and services from the DSCBA.</p> <p>Every piece of Bean Plant Co. clothing is handmade by Carissa in between bed times and naps as she stays home to take care of her 4 children. Her husband Douglas is an invaluable help and wears many hats behind the scenes. Carissa will be busy this holiday season creating adorable creations for sale on her website and also at a variety of craft fairs and markets throughout the Bay Area. All while helping the Down Syndrome Connection of the Bay Area.</p> <p>For more information on Bean Plant Co., visit <a href="http://beanplantco.bigcartel.com/about-us" target="_blank">http://beanplantco.bigcartel.com/about-us</a></p> http://dsconnection.3nerds.com/blog.php?id=business-spotlight-bean-plant-co.&search_type=NAME 2016-11-02 Movie Review: To Joey, With Love <p>I&rsquo;ll admit it: I had no idea who Joey + Rory were until two years ago. I&rsquo;ve reached the stage in my life where I listen more to music from my past (hello, Fleetwood Mac and Bon Jovi!) than to current music. So the news of an up-and-coming Christian/country duo wasn&rsquo;t on my radar at all&hellip;until they welcomed a beautiful baby with Down syndrome in 2014. They made news in our DS community because of the way they accepted their birth diagnosis&mdash;essentially, &ldquo;This is a big surprise, but we know this is the baby we were meant&nbsp;to have.&rdquo; It mirrored the way many of us feel&mdash;that this wasn&rsquo;t necessarily the life we had envisioned, but it&rsquo;s the one we were given, and we were given it for a reason.</p> <p>When Joey was diagnosed with cervical cancer shortly after their daughter Indiana&rsquo;s birth, we in the DS community ached, knowing how hurt this beautiful young mother must feel at the fear of a scary diagnosis while learning to mother her first baby. But when Joey was given a clean bill of health after surgery, we were all relieved and went about our business. Until Joey&rsquo;s cancer aggressively returned months later.</p> <p>This all might have gone less noticed except for two things: Joey is one of our own&mdash;a mother to a child with Down syndrome. And we&rsquo;re a tight-knit group. And two, Rory wrote&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thislifeilive.com/" target="_blank">beautiful blog posts</a>&nbsp;about their life during this time&mdash;intermixed with joy, hope, grief, and pain. Many of us were glued to his blog, hungrily looking for glimpses of beautiful Indiana while hoping against hope that Joey&rsquo;s condition would improve.</p> <p>It didn&rsquo;t, and while Indy grew bigger and more beautiful, Joey faded, until shortly after Indiana&rsquo;s second birthday, when she passed away.</p> <p>Rory had taken countless hours of video starting late in Joey&rsquo;s pregnancy (before her diagnosis), right up until her death, and with the help of filmmakers he assembled this footage into a documentary/labor of love that is an incredibly tribute to Joey and to the life she shared with their family.</p> <p>I rarely get to go to the movies, but I really, really wanted to see&nbsp;<em><a href="http://tojoeywithlove.com/" target="_blank">To Joey, With Love</a></em>, and it so happened it was playing the night after my mom&rsquo;s birthday&hellip;and I also needed to get her a birthday gift of some sort. Bingo! I&rsquo;d take her to the movie as a birthday gift, since I knew that she, like me, had followed Rory&rsquo;s blog about Joey&rsquo;s battle with cancer.</p> <p>I was a little worried that the movie would be horribly sad, which would be a pretty depressing birthday treat, but I needn&rsquo;t have worried. It&nbsp;<em>was</em>&nbsp;sad&mdash;heartbreakingly so. But how would it&nbsp;<em>not&nbsp;</em>be, given that we all know Joey passes away? But more than that, it is a truly beautiful, touching love story&mdash;to Joey, but also to their whole family. The movie doesn&rsquo;t focus on Joey&rsquo;s decline, but rather on Joey&rsquo;s desire to live and love the best she could, for as long as she could.</p> <p>Beautiful Indy features prominently throughout, and oh, my heart!! That baby girl reminds me so much of Sam from when he was younger&mdash;right down to the way they both scritch-scratched the crib sheets upon waking up! And there&rsquo;s a scene shortly after Indy&rsquo;s birth when Joey&rsquo;s tears drip on her baby daughter, and you can see the pain she&rsquo;s struggling with as she processes Indy&rsquo;s diagnosis&hellip;but then she smiles through her tears, laughs, and comments that you can&rsquo;t really be sad when you have such a beautiful little gift. That part went&nbsp;<em>right&nbsp;</em>to my gut, because that was me the first two weeks of Sam&rsquo;s life&mdash;I wasn&rsquo;t necessarily&nbsp;<em>sad&nbsp;</em>about his diagnosis, but I would randomly break into tears for no reason, and then laugh through them because he was just the most beautiful little thing I had ever seen.&nbsp;Shortly, you can see that Indy&rsquo;s diagnosis becomes a nonissue for her smitten parents, who delight and amaze in their daughter.</p> <p>I&rsquo;m not sure I even know how to describe this movie. It&rsquo;s not really a Down syndrome movie, because that&rsquo;s such a small part of their story. It&rsquo;s not a grief story, because so much of it is focused on life. I guess maybe it&rsquo;s a love story, but with a tragic ending. But more than anything, I guess I&rsquo;d call it a really well done, beautiful tribute to a life well lived.</p> <p>And what I&nbsp;<em>can&nbsp;</em>say is that if you have the chance to see it, you should. You&rsquo;ll cry, but you&rsquo;ll also laugh. And you&rsquo;ll come away appreciating life, love, and everything that goes into it.</p> <p><em>To Joey, With Love&nbsp;</em>plays in theaters one more night (October 6th), and if you go to the website you can find theaters showing it. After that, I think it will be released on DVD.</p> <p>Honestly, this is well worth ninety minutes of your time. And I&rsquo;m so glad that Rory made this film for Indiana, who is so young that she won&rsquo;t remember the mother who clearly loved her more than anything. She&rsquo;ll always have this footage showing her just how much she was loved, and that&rsquo;s a beautiful thing. I&rsquo;m just glad Rory decided to share it with the rest of us, too.</p> <p><span>This post originally appeared on Cathleen's blog, The Small Family Chronicles. Read more here:&nbsp;</span><a href="http://foursmalls.com/" target="_blank">foursmalls.com&nbsp;</a></p> http://dsconnection.3nerds.com/blog.php?id=movie-review-to-joey-with-love&search_type=NAME 2016-09-30 Book Review: Life with Charley <p><strong>A book review from Cathleen Small on&nbsp;<em>Life with Charley.</em>&nbsp;This book is available in our Lending Library.</strong></p> <p>I recently had the chance to read a memoir of raising a child with a dual diagnosis of Down syndrome and autism:&nbsp;<a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Life-Charley-Sherry-Palmer/dp/1937365700/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1471976340&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=life+with+charley">Life with Charley, by Sherry Palmer</a>.</p> <p>This was a fun read for me because Charley is an adult, and I love getting a glimpse into possible bits of our future with Sam. I know some parents of young children with Down syndrome prefer&nbsp;<em>not&nbsp;</em>to get that glimpse into the future, and I can certainly understand that&mdash;but for me, I enjoy seeing what life may bring in the future as we continue to watch Sam grow.</p> <p>What I found in reading this book was that Charley is a total hoot! I found myself laughing out loud at many parts. The book doesn&rsquo;t have a rigid structure as it follows the story of his parents adopting him and then raising him. Rather, it&rsquo;s a series of stories of life with Charley&mdash;whatever his mother, Sherry, felt like sharing. Which sounds rather scattered when I type it, but really, it works for the book. It feels like a fun little romp through life with Charley.</p> <p>One interesting thing about this book that&rsquo;s a bit different from some other memoirs is that Charley&rsquo;s parents are a pastor and his wife, so you get a look at what it&rsquo;s like for a family heavily involved in the church to raise a son with special needs. The book isn&rsquo;t heavily church-focused&mdash;it&rsquo;s certainly not off-putting to people who&nbsp;<em>aren&rsquo;t&nbsp;</em>involved in the church&mdash;but I personally found it fascinating to see when and where the family found acceptance&hellip;and when and where they experienced discrimination because of their son.</p> <p>This is an uplifting book in general. Certainly, there are hard parts discussed. Charley is an eloper, for example&mdash;he wanders off, and on more than one occasion he is returned to his parents by the police. That&rsquo;s a scary thing for parents of children with special needs to consider, but it&rsquo;s a reality for many. But through it all, Sherry Palmer&rsquo;s love and pride for her son shine through.</p> <p>If you enjoy reading books that will give you a glimpse into life with an adult child with Down syndrome, this is a fun one.</p> <p>Read more of Cathleen's writings on her blog:&nbsp;<a href="http://foursmalls.com/" target="_blank">foursmalls.com&nbsp;</a></p> http://dsconnection.3nerds.com/blog.php?id=book-review-life-with-charley&search_type=NAME 2016-08-24 Book Review: Count It All Joy <p><span><strong>A book review from Cathleen Small on&nbsp;<em>Count It All Joy: Life's Lesson's From a Child With Special Needs.</em>&nbsp;</strong><strong>This book is available in our Lending Library.</strong></span></p> <p>So much good reading getting done this summer! Last week, in addition to reading&nbsp;<em><a href="http://foursmalls.com/book-review-am-i-invisible/" target="_blank">Am I Invisible?</a></em><em>,&nbsp;</em>I read<a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Count-All-Joy-Lessons-Special/dp/1512706825/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1468962078&amp;sr=8-3&amp;keywords=count+it+all+joy" target="_blank"><em>&nbsp;Count It All Joy: Life&rsquo;s Lesson&rsquo;s From a Child With Special Needs</em></a>.</p> <p>Okay, I&rsquo;m going to be honest: I was a little leery because this books deals a lot in faith, with each vignette having an associated passage from the Bible to go with it. And although I certainly have my own faith and beliefs, I am typically not drawn to faith-based books. But I was pleasantly surprised:&nbsp;<em>Count It All Joy</em>is not at all heavy-handed in its connection to faith. The Biblical passages are a nice touch for those who want to read them, but those who are simply interested in the disability aspect of the book can skip over the passages and not really miss anything.</p> <p>This book is a quick, easy read because it&rsquo;s set up as a series of short vignettes (most just a couple of pages) about various aspects of the author&rsquo;s experience raising her son. The vignettes are generally sweet and touching, and I enjoyed reading them.</p> <p>I think this book would appeal to many parents of children with special needs&mdash;whether that special need is Down syndrome or something else. The author&rsquo;s son, Christian, actually has a dual diagnosis of Down syndrome and autism, as well as a congenital heart defect. In scanning the customer reviews on Amazon, I noted that one reviewer who enjoyed the book said she could &ldquo;relate to every word&rdquo; because she has a great-granddaughter with autism.</p> <p>If you want a fairly quick, feel-good read,&nbsp;<em>Count It All Joy</em>&nbsp;is well worth your time.</p> <p>Read more of Cathleen's writings on her blog:&nbsp;<a href="http://foursmalls.com/" target="_blank">foursmalls.com&nbsp;</a></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> http://dsconnection.3nerds.com/blog.php?id=book-review-count-it-all-joy&search_type=NAME 2016-07-28 DSCBA Receives Education Grant from Global Down Syndrome Foundation <p>The Down Syndrome Connection of the Bay Area (DSCBA) is the proud recipient of one of only eight international education grants awarded by the Global Down Syndrome Foundation.</p> <p>Future Connections, the DSCBA program funded by the Global Down Syndrome Foundation, will offer adolescents and young adults transitioning from high school the necessary support to voice their interests, preferences and needs as they plan their futures outside of a school-based environment and move toward employment, independent or supportive living, and other long-term goals.</p> <p>&ldquo;This is a crucial and often overlooked component of transitional and future planning. Our goal is for our participants to gain a confident voice in what is important to them and how those pieces are currently present in their lives,&rdquo; stated Nancy LaBelle, DSCBA Executive Director.</p> <p>The Future Connections curriculum is based on the Framing A Future tool published by the esteemed Bridge School in Hillsborough, California.</p> <p>The Down Syndrome Connection is passionate and dedicated to encouraging the unlimited potential in children and adults with Down syndrome throughout the San Francisco Bay Area since 1998. Our mission is to empower, inspire and support people with Down syndrome, their families and the community that serves them, while fostering awareness and acceptance in all areas of life.</p> <p>Amy Garcia accepted the award on our behalf at the National Down Syndrome Congress Convention in Orlando, Florida on July 21, 2016.</p> <p><img src="../images/site/GDSF_2016_Award1.jpg" alt="GDSF_2016_Award1.jpg" width="300" height="178" /></p> <p><img title="GDSF_2016_Award2.png" src="../images/site/GDSF_2016_Award2.png" alt="GDSF_2016_Award2.png" width="250" height="347" /></p> http://dsconnection.3nerds.com/blog.php?id=dscba-receives-education-grant-from-global-down-syndrome-foundation&search_type=NAME 2016-07-22 Book Review: My Heart Can't Even Believe It <p><strong>A book review from Cathleen Small on&nbsp;<em>My Heart Can't Even Believe It: A Story of Science, Love, and Down Syndrome.&nbsp;</em>This book is available in our Lending Library.</strong></p> <p>This week, I had the chance to read&nbsp;<em><a href="https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1606132741/ref=s9_simh_gw_g14_i1_r?ie=UTF8&amp;fpl=fresh&amp;pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;pf_rd_s=desktop-2&amp;pf_rd_r=4F8FZ35K48KD8HXSEZEV&amp;pf_rd_t=36701&amp;pf_rd_p=14bf09e4-93c8-43ff-8639-e7979e7d1787&amp;pf_rd_i=desktop" target="_blank">My Heart Can&rsquo;t Even Believe It: A Story of Science, Love, and Down Syndrome</a>&nbsp;</em>by Amy Silverman.</p> <p>There are a lot of mommy blogs about Down syndrome&mdash;some of them good and some of them not to my taste&mdash;and some of those blogs have spun into books. Many of them are sort of memoirs of a parent&rsquo;s experience with his or her child with Down syndrome. And, like the blogs, some are really good and some are just&hellip;well, okay.</p> <p><em>My Heart Can&rsquo;t Even Believe It</em>&nbsp;falls into the &ldquo;really good&rdquo; category for me. Why? For one thing, it takes a slightly different approach than many such memoirs. Amy Silverman is a journalist by trade, and it&rsquo;s clear that she&rsquo;s a research junkie&mdash;something I can appreciate and understand well! For the book, she documents her dive down several rabbit holes, trying to get answers to questions that interest her about Down syndrome.</p> <p>Many of these questions are science-based&mdash;for example, she very much wants to learn why people with Down syndrome rarely ever have curly hair, so she consults with some of the country&rsquo;s top genetic experts to get an answer. (Spoiler alert: No one can give her a definitive answer on that one.)</p> <p>I could really relate to that quest. I was at least the third generation in my dad&rsquo;s family to have curly blond ringlets as a child, and then my first son inherited them, too. Both of my babies were born bald, but when we found out Sam had Down syndrome, one of the first things Chris and I both thought of was the hair. &ldquo;I want him to have your curls to flip Down syndrome the bird!&rdquo; Chris declared. It wasn&rsquo;t so much the aesthetics of the curls as the fact that if Sam inherited the curls, it was, in our minds, some sort of odd proof that Down syndrome wouldn&rsquo;t define him. (Spoiler alert: He has the fine, straight hair characteristic of people with Down syndrome. Second spoiler alert: Down syndrome doesn&rsquo;t define him anyway.)</p> <p><em>My Heart Can&rsquo;t Even Believe It&nbsp;</em>was full of such little quests for knowledge, and that really appealed to me as someone interested in little-known tidbits of information.</p> <p>And, too, I just plain enjoyed the author&rsquo;s voice. She&rsquo;s very relatable and matter-of-fact, which I appreciated. She uses the dreaded R-word, which might turn off some readers, but she carefully examines the power of the word and how it got that way&mdash;and how language is fluid and that word might later morph meanings again.</p> <p>Pick up a copy. It&rsquo;s a fast, enjoyable read, and particularly if your child with Down syndrome is young, it&rsquo;s a lot of fun to read about the author&rsquo;s daughter, Sophie, who is now a pre-teen.</p> <p><span>Read more of Cathleen's writings on her blog:&nbsp;</span><a href="http://foursmalls.com/" target="_blank">foursmalls.com&nbsp;</a></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> http://dsconnection.3nerds.com/blog.php?id=book-review-my-heart-can-t-even-believe-it&search_type=NAME 2016-06-24 Book Review: An Uncomplicated Life <p><strong>A book review from Cathleen Small on <em>An Uncomplicated Life.&nbsp;</em>This book is available in our Lending Library.</strong></p> <p>Our Down syndrome organization asked me if I&rsquo;d like to do some book reviews on recent additions to their library, and I happily agreed&mdash;as if I needed a reason to read books on Down syndrome anyway! The first one I read was&nbsp;<em>An Uncomplicated Life</em>&nbsp;by Paul Daugherty (<a href="http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0062359959/ref=s9_simh_gw_g14_i1_r?ie=UTF8&amp;fpl=fresh&amp;pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;pf_rd_s=desktop-1&amp;pf_rd_r=1E45C5VR50RAAFY3Y5NV&amp;pf_rd_t=36701&amp;pf_rd_p=2079475242&amp;pf_rd_i=desktop" target="_blank">available here</a>).</p> <p>I was really interested to read this book, and I took my time with it, because I wanted to soak it all in. Paul Daugherty is a sports columnist for the&nbsp;<em>Cincinnati Enquirer</em>, and in 1989 his daughter Jillian was born with Down syndrome. Since then, Jillian has gone on to live the kind of life I hope to see Sam have someday&mdash;full, fulfilled, independent, and happy. So I was interested to read about her from her parent&rsquo;s perspective. (I&rsquo;d love to read about her from&nbsp;<span>her&nbsp;</span>perspective, too, but the reality is that not many adults with Down syndrome have described their lives in writing, so it&rsquo;s harder to find things written by the people themselves. And besides, as a parent, I do find myself very interested in the parents&rsquo; perspective.)</p> <p>A line on the book jacket immediately grabbed me: &ldquo;Jillian was born October 17, 1989. It was the last bad day.&rdquo; That line is provocative and attention-getting&mdash;you don&rsquo;t want to think of your child&rsquo;s birth as a&nbsp;<em>bad</em>&nbsp;day, but the reality is that when you receive a birth diagnosis, it&nbsp;<span>is&nbsp;</span>a&nbsp;<em>hard</em>&nbsp;day. But then you move on and look back and realize it shouldn&rsquo;t have been so hard&mdash;only of course you didn&rsquo;t know that at the time. So I immediately recognized exactly what Daugherty meant when he called it the &ldquo;<span>last</span>&nbsp;bad day.&rdquo;</p> <p>At first, I was a bit troubled when Daugherty kept referring to he and his wife attempting to &ldquo;build a better Jillian.&rdquo; I understood their determination to help Jillian maximize her potential in a world that&nbsp;<span>demands</span>&nbsp;people achieve certain levels of what we call &ldquo;success,&rdquo; but I hated the image of Jillian as (a) some sort of robot, and (b) someone who needed to be &ldquo;better.&rdquo; Because I never feel that way about Sam&mdash;in all my efforts to help him, I never feel it&rsquo;s because he needs to be&nbsp;<em>better</em>; it&rsquo;s because I want to make things&nbsp;<span>easier</span>&nbsp;for him. He&rsquo;s always going to have to work harder than the average person, but I&rsquo;d like to minimize that as much as possible for him&mdash;I want him to work hard because I want&nbsp;<em>both</em>&nbsp;of my kids to work hard, but I don&rsquo;t want things to be<span>unmanageably&nbsp;</span>hard for him, if that makes sense.</p> <p>But I worked past my annoyance at the phrase &ldquo;build a better Jillian&rdquo; and reminded myself that as much as I didn&rsquo;t care for the phrase, her parents seemed to have the exact same goals I do&mdash;to help their child find her way in the world and live a happy, fulfilling, independent life.</p> <p>At times the book was hard to read because I know it probably represents our future. When the author talked about Jillian being in an inclusive educational setting but not&nbsp;<span>really&nbsp;</span>being included by her typically developing peers, it saddened me. I know that is probably true in many cases, and the author was careful to explain&nbsp;<span>why&nbsp;</span>it was so&mdash;the other kids weren&rsquo;t cruel to Jillian, but because of her delayed development, her same-age peers just weren&rsquo;t at the same place as her; they had different interests. But still, it made me a little sad to read. And reading about the homework struggles&hellip;oh, the homework struggles! Well, we get those with our 46-chromosomed child already, so it&rsquo;s not like we&rsquo;re strangers to them. But it sounds like it becomes a whole new ballgame when you&rsquo;re talking about a child who&nbsp;<span>wants&nbsp;</span>to learn but who has to work so,&nbsp;<em>so</em>&nbsp;much harder at it. I can&rsquo;t say I&rsquo;m particularly looking forward to spending&nbsp;<span>hours</span>&nbsp;on five spelling words, as the author describes with Jillian.</p> <p>But mostly, the book made me happy. It was clear throughout the book just how much of a positive effect Jillian has had on the lives of everyone around her, and honestly, she just sounds like a super cool lady&mdash;the kind of person I&rsquo;d love to go hang out and get coffee with. She sounds witty and funny and interesting and kind. Seems to me her family and friends are pretty lucky to have her in their lives&mdash;and her father&rsquo;s words certainly seem to imply that.</p> <p>For people with young children with Down syndrome, I think this is a very good book&mdash;not as a reference, but just as a &ldquo;good read.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s well written, and it&rsquo;s inspiring without being sappy or overwrought&mdash;perhaps because what is most inspiring is just Jillian herself, not any heroic undertakings by her parents. Paul Daugherty&rsquo;s writing style is as matter-of-fact as his daughter seems to be, and I find it enjoyable to read stories of adults with Down syndrome that actually focus on the real person and the day-to-day reality, rather than honing in on some bit of feel-good fluff, as some of the &ldquo;inspirational&rdquo; pieces about people with disabilities tend to do.</p> <p>Read more of Cathleen's writings on her blog: <a href="http://foursmalls.com/" target="_blank">foursmalls.com&nbsp;</a></p> http://dsconnection.3nerds.com/blog.php?id=book-review-an-uncomplicated-life&search_type=NAME 2016-05-30 Ability Awareness Program Promotes Inclusion and Acceptance <p><img style="float: right;" title="Eli_AA_Thousand_Oaks.jpg" src="../images/site/Eli_AA_Thousand_Oaks.jpg" alt="Eli_AA_Thousand_Oaks.jpg" width="200" height="236" /></p> <p>Berkeley, CA&mdash;Eli Cooper, 19, sits in front of two classes of 3<sup>rd</sup>&nbsp;graders at Thousand Oaks Elementary School to tell the unique story of his life.&nbsp;&nbsp;The children pay close attention, as he shares with the students the things that bring him joy and the things that present him with challenges.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>As Eli speaks, it&rsquo;s easy to see the children are relating to his story.&nbsp;&nbsp;Sometimes life is difficult.&nbsp;&nbsp;Sometimes life is easy.&nbsp;We all have our ups and downs.&nbsp;&nbsp;Eli finishes his presentation, and the group of 3<sup>rd</sup>&nbsp;graders start to open up about their own experiences; experiences much like Eli&rsquo;s.</p> <p>&ldquo;I know about needing friends.&nbsp;&nbsp;I moved here [from Mexico] last year and didn&rsquo;t speak English.&nbsp;&nbsp;My friends help me.&rdquo;</p> <p>Another student reflects, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a good reader and so need extra help from teachers and my friends&mdash;so I get this.&rdquo;</p> <p>Eli Cooper is the Ability Awareness Advocate at the Down Syndrome Connection of the Bay Area.&nbsp;&nbsp;He is presenting his personal story about having Down syndrome to all grades and classes at Thousand Oaks Elementary School&mdash;20 classes in total.&nbsp;&nbsp;His mom and advocate, Jennifer Cooper, helps Eli make the presentations here and at schools throughout the Bay Area.</p> <p>The DSCBAs Ability Awareness presentations are a unique way to educate students about Down syndrome and allow them to ask questions. Students become engaged and inquisitive and share their own stories and struggles about having cystic fibrosis, moving from another county, ADHD, dwarfism and many other challenges.&nbsp;&nbsp;Ability Awareness presentations also spread understanding about Down syndrome throughout our community, and allow us all to learn that we are more alike than different.</p> <p>As one Thousand Oaks student says, &ldquo;Thank you for taking time off and coming to our class.&nbsp;&nbsp;I never knew what Down syndrome meant.&nbsp;&nbsp;You are so brave because most people don&rsquo;t like to share their disabilities or something wrong with them.&rdquo;</p> <p>For Eli, giving Ability Awareness presentations is an opportunity to work on his vocational skills, including confirming appointments with teachers, ensuring he has all the necessary materials, having professional attire and demeanor, and being more involved with the presentations and students.&nbsp;&nbsp;&ldquo;I like being up in front of a crowd and educating them.&nbsp;&nbsp;It feels good,&rdquo; says Eli.</p> <p>And this being Teacher Appreciation Week, these presentations at Thousand Oaks were requested and organized by Eli&rsquo;s former teacher and inclusion specialist at&nbsp;Thousand Oaks, Anne Hirose.&nbsp;&nbsp;A collaboration like this shows the profound impact a group of dedicated individuals can make in the lives of so many.&nbsp;&nbsp;Together, they are knocking down barriers to education, employment, housing and community involvement&hellip;one story at a time.</p> http://dsconnection.3nerds.com/blog.php?id=ability-awareness-program-promotes-inclusion-and-acceptance&search_type=NAME 2016-05-06 Thank You Educators <p>This week is National Teacher Appreciation Week and from all of us at the DSCBA, we say thank you. Through the Down Syndrome Educational Alliance, we have privilege of working with the entire education team, including general and special education teachers, paraeducators, administrators and others. We are committed to providing educators and professionals with up-to-date information and services regarding research- based best practices for educating students with Down syndrome. Our goal is to share that information with as many educators as possible so that all students, particularly those with Down syndrome, can reach their fullest potential.</p> <p>When a school district joins our Educational Alliance, we train and support educator teams and administrators so that they can understand specific learning profiles, strengths, and weaknesses of students with Down syndrome. After training, each attendee receives ample pertinent information about educating students with Down syndrome. Topics addressed include behavior, communication, inclusion, curriculum adaptation, and more.</p> <p>We are grateful for all the districts that have partnered with us so far and the educators who have taken advantage of the Educational Alliance and our resources to help their students reach their potentials.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h4><span style="color: #3f2860;">Partnering Districts and Independent Schools</span></h4> <p>Acalanes Union High</p> <p>Albany Unified</p> <p>Antioch Unified</p> <p>Aspire Public Schools</p> <p>Benicia Unified</p> <p>Berkeley Unified</p> <p>Berryessa Unified</p> <p>Big Valley Christian School</p> <p>Brentwood Union</p> <p>Burlingame</p> <p>Campbell Unified</p> <p>Contra Costa Christian School</p> <p>Cupertino Unified</p> <p>Dublin Unified</p> <p>Evergreen</p> <p>Fairfield-Suisun</p> <p>Fremont Unified</p> <p>Hayward Unified</p> <p>Hope Technology School</p> <p>Jefferson Union High</p> <p>Lafayette Unified</p> <p>Liberty Union</p> <p>Livermore Unified</p> <p>Modesto Unified</p> <p>Mt. Diablo Unified</p> <p>Newark Unified</p> <p>North Creek Academy</p> <p>Oakland Unified</p> <p>Orchard</p> <p>Orinda Unified</p> <p>Piedmont Unified</p> <p>Pleasanton Unified</p> <p>Presentation School (Sonoma County)</p> <p>Rocketship Charter School</p> <p>Santa Clara Unified</p> <p>San Francisco Unified</p> <p>San Jose Unified</p> <p>San Ramon Valley Unified</p> <p>San Ramon Valley Christian Academy</p> <p>Sonoma Valley Unified</p> <p>St. Timothy's Noah's Ark Preschool</p> <p>Sunnyvale</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> http://dsconnection.3nerds.com/blog.php?id=thank-you-educators&search_type=NAME 2016-05-04 DSCBA Member Featured in Super Bowl 50 Commercial <p><span>DSCBA Member Featured in Super Bowl 50 Commercial</span><br /><br /><span>4-year old Down Syndrome Connection of the Bay Area member, and model, Cora</span><br /><span>Slocum, is no stranger to being featured in advertisements: she has been in</span><br /><span>two ad campaigns for local shoe company Livie &amp; Luca. And on Sunday, Ms.</span><br /><span>Slocum will make her appearance in a commercial during Super Bowl 50.</span><br /><br /><span>Cora happens to have Down syndrome.</span><br /><br /><span>Her appearance in the SunTrust Super Bowl commercial is indicative of the</span><br /><span>growing inclusion in the media of individuals with Down syndrome and other</span><br /><span>differing abilities.&nbsp; The Down Syndrome Connection of the Bay Area (DSCBA),</span><br /><span>based in Danville, works daily to empower, inspire and support inclusive</span><br /><span>programs and services to families throughout the Bay Area.</span><br /><br /><span>"We are thrilled that Cora is representing those with Down syndrome to the</span><br /><span>millions watching Super Bowl 50, especially since the game is being played</span><br /><span>in our own backyard.&nbsp; Such exposure helps the DSCBA continue providing</span><br /><span>programs and services to families, caregivers, educators, medical</span><br /><span>professionals and others advocating for loved ones with Down syndrome,"</span><br /><span>stated Nancy LaBelle, DSCBA Executive Director.</span><br /><br /><br /><span>Commercial link:&nbsp;</span><a href="https://mail.dsconnection.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKtDqM1H82w%26app=desktop" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKtDqM1H82w&amp;app=desktop</a></p> http://dsconnection.3nerds.com/blog.php?id=dscba-member-featured-in-super-bowl-50-commercial&search_type=NAME 2016-02-05 Sound Bite from Music Therapy <p><strong>Did you know?</strong></p> <p><strong>Music therapy can enhance your child's academics, listening, social interactions, motor coordination and language skills</strong> -- all in a non-threatening and highly motivating environment. Research has shown that music therapy can benefit memory, communication and social skills. It provides a way to tackle challenging or repetitive tasks through the use of music. Singing and rhythm offer a way to help articulate speech. <strong>Many of the children I work with here have a passion for music and a love for performance.</strong> The inherent rhythmic patterns in music can provide a timinig cue to help improve motor skills. Each month in Music Therapy, we focus on a theme and utilize different songs, instruments and activities to reinforce the theme. Social and academic skills are woven throughout the session. If you have an infant or a child up to six years old, join us in Danville on the first Saturday of theach month for a great time with your child!</p> http://dsconnection.3nerds.com/blog.php?id=sound-bite-from-music-therapy&search_type=NAME 2015-10-29 Expression Connection Project Celebrates 4 Years! <p>The Expression Connection Project (ECP) recently celebrated its fourth year at the Connection! It has been a true honor and personal accomplishment to be part of such a beneficial and worthwhile program. ECP continues to build its AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communications) lending library and provide consultation to students, parents and professionals. In addition to consultation and lending services, ECP provides trainings, monthly communications and AAC resources <a href="http://www.dsconnection.org/augmentative-alternative-communication.php">online</a>.</p> <p>Since January, ECP has provided consultation to 19 families and 7 professionals. Many of our consultations have resulted in collaboration between home and school for the implementation of AAC- a gold standard in best practices. While AAC is often put in place during the school age-years, we also serve individuals from birth to three years old and into adulthood. If you have any questions regarding AAC and ECP, please contact Kati at (925) 362-8660.</p> http://dsconnection.3nerds.com/blog.php?id=expression-connection-project-celebrates-4-years-&search_type=NAME 2015-10-22 Medical Outreach Alliance Update <p>Welcome to my first update on the Medical Outreach Alliance! A litlte backstory to start off: I was one of a group of volunteers doing medical outreach for the Down Syndrome Connection when it was decided that we needed to devote more time and attention to it than a group of volunteers reasonably could. And so, in January I came on board as the Medical Outreach Alliance coordinator.&nbsp;</p> <p>Since then, we've successfully <strong>made contact with thirty-nine area hospitals</strong> that have birthing centers, and we've <strong>sent more than 400 literature packets</strong> to these hospitals for disbursal to the famlies that welcome a baby with Down syndrome at their facility. The packets include some basic information about Down syndrome and the resources available, and we have them in both English and Spanish versions.</p> <p>We're getting a wonderful response from the hospitals we're welcoming into the alliance, and they have been passing out the materials to new families. We're also encouraging them to call us when a baby is born so that we may deliver a welcome basket of gifts and information to the family. Several families have had the advantage of this service already.</p> <p>Our outreach to the hospitals is primarily focused on families receiving a birth diagnosis of Down syndrome for their baby. Our next phase is to reach out to the area obstretricians and geneticists who are working with families who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. <strong>The moments after diagnosis-- whether birth or prenatal-- are a confusing time that many of us remember well.</strong> We hope to be able to reach the growing number of families receiving prenatal diagnosis so that we can provide support in those confusing first days, throughout their pregnancy, and as they welcome their child to the world.</p> <p>We've also developed training for nurses and other health professionals who are working with new families with a baby with Down syndrome. We hope to begin delivering that to the hospitals in our local alliance in the fall. Several of the hospitals have expressed a great deal of interest in the training, and we're looking forward to connecting with them.</p> <p>I'm so excited about what's been going in the alliance over this first six months because we are forming excellent, strong connections with our local medicla providers and, by extension, new families. <strong>We're becoming a go-to resource for birthing centers and hospitals when a baby with Down syndrome is born</strong>, and that's exactly what we had hoped to accomplish.</p> http://dsconnection.3nerds.com/blog.php?id=medical-outreach-alliance-update&search_type=NAME 2015-08-15