Parents, teachers and professionals working together for an inclusive policy

Sami Basha, Rita Sidoli, Sami Basha

• Publisher: EDUCatt Università Cattolica
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9788883118517
• eBook ISBN: 9788867801992
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Theory & Practice

The chromosomic map confirmed that Sofia was a baby with the Down Syndrome.
During the first days of her life, I was overwhelmed by many negative feelings: fear, worry, anxiety, justified or not, inadequacy, uncertainty of the future for me and my family, associated with unexpected events, complications and different problems connected to the Syndrome. [...]
Sometimes I wondered: my daughter is like everyone else, isn't she??!! And she needs love more than the other children, doesn't she? [...]
From the beginning, we joined AGPD and VIVIDOWN and from them I learnt that we had to work hard to improve the quality of life of these people.
Therefore, I immediately started the rehabilitative therapies with Sofia: I tried to stimulate and excite her daily thanks to the training received at a specialised centre. On the one hand I found out that my bond with Sofia was growing and strengthening more and more and on the other hand I noticed that this "job" made of massages, physiotherapy and different kinds of incentives rewarded me so that I could find inside of me unknown energies, even if my emotional and psychophysical efforts put me constantly on probation.
My time is beaten by her rhythms: I often look at her while she is sleeping, I think she is beautiful and I often wonder if a tongue too prominent, two slanting eyes (that stole the colour from the sky) or the longer times to reach the normal steps in life are really so discriminating.
Who would ever say that children must always correspond to the growth tables? To the IQ tests? Or to the traditional beauty standards?
Obviously, the comparison with her brothers is always behind the corner; the risk to classify her according to standard growth steps is high, even for me.
Luca and Roberto, the 4 and 6-years-old brothers, learnt from the beginning to recognize the best aspects of Sofia's personality and to enhance the improvements, using all their creativity and the typical ascendancy of the older brothers.
I often see them enjoy and play together with activities that help and stimulate her. And for me and my husband it's always a surprise because they are a very important resource for her and an example for us thanks to their love and affection, despite their tender age.
It's true that Sofia's learning rhythms force the whole family to slow down, to wait for her in the achievement of her goals, to use different strategies to fill her gaps, both inside the family and in the larger net of human relationships. But this slow pace lets us enjoy all those details that usually slip out of our fast pace.
And all the energies, that are used and that sometimes seem to be out of proportion if compared to the results, are never lost and day by day they become entirely recognizable. Even the results come sooner or later: the conquest of every single step is really hard-won!
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