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Down Syndrome Day
A day set aside for children born to stand out!
Today is Down Syndrome Day, first established in 2012.
“DS was first described by the English physician John Langdon Down in 1866. In his manuscript, Dr. Down reports that a large proportion of the patients referred to him shared a striking pattern of intellectual disability and physical traits that led him to attempt an ethnic classification, hypothesising that those affected with the syndrome were genetically related to Mongolian ethnicity, given the physical similarities.
“It wouldn’t be until later in 1959, following the advances in karyotype imaging techniques, that French paediatrician and geneticist Jérôme Lejeune described the triplication of chromosome 21 as the cause of the syndrome.
When I was a child, children with Down Syndrome were hidden away, their only real interaction with their peers was through family, for the most part.
That they could learn, they could be stars on stage, that they had personality, innate talent, and that they might live independent lives never seemed to be a consideration.
They were hidden away from society.
“Oh I’m so sorry,” the words often on people’s lips when they find out someone has had a DS child.
