Rising Thunder (Raising a son with Down syndrome and Autism)

Helpful Hints to Raising Differently Abled Children   Suzanne DeRemer is not only a poet, but also the adoptive mother of this very special young man with a duel diagnosis of Down syndrome and Autistic spectrum disorder. Adopting her son meant embracing the miracle of a child who needed a home. She wrote a poem, "A Child's Plea" to help foster children find homes, and this began her journey of wanting to adopt a child.   April is Autism awareness month. My son was born with Down syndrome at birth, and then as time went on I was told he also had pervasive development disorder. Often I would ask specialists if he had something other than Down syndrome when I watched him drop toys on the slate by my fireplace. He exhibited sensory needs at an early age with wanting to hear sounds, but yet being afraid of other sounds. I felt the purpose of dropping toys on the slate was to hear the toy make a distinct noise. Many times I was told that my son only had...

Helpful Hints to Raising a Differently Abled Child      Suzanne DeRemer is not only a poet, but also the adoptive mother of this very special young man with a duel diagnosis of Down syndrome and Autistic spectrum disorder. Adopting her son meant embracing the miracle of a child who needed a home. She wrote a poem, "A Child's Plea" to help foster children find homes, and this began her journey of wanting to adopt a child.        My son has brought about a rising thunder within me. This means I feel destined to help by raising awareness and rising above discrimination, labels, and public and professional bias. All parents with disabled children need to rise and create a little thunder every now and then. A prime example of this would be at IEP meetings when our children need a voice to speak for them.      Raising a child with such challenges means that everythin...