I am working with a 10-year-old boy that has Down’s syndrome. Down’s syndrome is a congenital disorder caused by an extra chromosome (trisomy) on the chromosome 21 pair. Those with the syndrome may have broad, flat faces; up-slanted eyes, sometimes with epicanthic folds (whence its former name, mongolism); heart and /or kidney malformations; and abnormal finger print patterns.

Many persons with Down’s syndrome can live and work independently or in a sheltered environment, but they age prematurely and have a short (33-year) life expectancy. The risk of bearing a child with the disorder increases with the mother’s age; it can be detected in the fetus by amniocentesis.

The person I am working with for this project has had this disability for his whole life, ten years. It affects him by causing memory loss, sudden outbursts, premature growth, speech deficiency, he is unable to write, slow down his ability to learn, anger management problems and hallucinations.

Everyday he wakes up at about 7:05 on school days and 9:00 on weekends. He has breakfast and sits and looks around for a while. After doing so he argues with his fingers which lead to fights that his mom and sister have to break up. Them he argues with his mom, hit her and runs all over the house laughing.

Next his mother gives him a bath which could sometimes be difficult, because he is upset or disturbed for whatever reason. He then dresses himself and his mother takes him to school. When he gets home from school he takes a bath, get something to eat and goes and watches television until his sister turns it off.

Reacting to that action he goes into the kitchen and argues with his himself or makes a lot of noise and if his sister talks to him he hits himself as if hr had his good and bag moments of controlling himself. After he calms down he watches some more television until he falls asleep. And that’s how he basically spends a typical day in his life.

Some of the major problems that he has are discrimination, recreation; he sometimes hurt himself and goes off into his own world. I discovered these problems just by spending time with him. People call him a retard, ugly and say that he is an anti-man. When he goes out he is treated like as outcast and is not involved in any of the activities, which makes him feel rejected therefore causing him to go off into his own little world.

He has no friends other than those at school. Because of this, you normally find him talking to himself or even arguing with his fingers. When he does this it sometimes get out of control causing him to hurt himself which ends up in bruising all over his body and he may not be aware of it. Because he has a speech deficiency, when he talks people laugh and that brings down his confidence.

If someone troubles him he sometimes get upset and that breaks out into a fight. He is a very intelligent boy and the fact that the disability slows down his learning, these problems do not contribute to the enhancement of his knowledge. If he goes to a place where there are normal children they treat him like they are afraid of him and he is still left to be by himself. If he tries to talk to someone and they do not understand they just walk away from him and sometimes he gets confused and begins to shout. All these problems can be prevented. Instead of him and others like him being misused and taken advantage of.

SOLUTION

For all these problems he is experiencing I have come to realize that maybe if he had more friends and people to talk to, an equal share of special and normal children the discrimination and recreation problems would be solved. I think that if he went to a normal school although he has a disability, with the right supervision the children would learn how to cope with him and learn that he is normal just like they are and there is nothing to be afraid of.

They would have a better reaction to each other in the outside world and instead of discriminating they would maybe try and understand each other better. I think this also would speed up his learning and talking process, it would give him that extra confidence that he needs. Because at first I was not too accustomed to him but as I got to know him I came to really understand what children like him have to go through.

Sometimes they do not understand what is going on around them. I think that if they would stop hiding them from everyone, separating them and making them feel different that this kind of behavior would not have started in the first place. The solution that I am recommending is a combining of schools and recreational facilities for everyone to use and share equally. Therefore if he had a problem, wanted to play, or anted someone to talk to there would be someone his age for him to refer to, rather than it being his sister or mother. Making it benefit everyone in the situation, he wouldn’t have to argue with himself and hurt himself because someone would have been there to help him get through whatever he was going through. It would give him a chance to get out more and he would not have to stay home and watch television.

I also think that there should be a law that states that children with disabilities should be able to attend the same school as those without disabilities. This would open there eyes more and they would really appreciate it because that one person making a difference in their life would really matter to them.