A friend of mine shared these experiences with me - can't believe the ignorance that still persists...
She took her ds to see the Doctor this week and our usual GP has moved to another practice, all of his records are there so she thought they'd just see a new Doctor. Said Dr looked at him as we walked in and commented "Ah Down syndrome"
She said "His name is X"
He then asked "Has he had it since birth?"
She was so astounded she couldn't even speak, she was just sitting there looking at him with her mouth open, after a few minutes of him studying her face he said "I guess so then"
My friend really, really wished she had been switched on enough at the time to say "No, he just woke up with it yesterday, is there anything you can do?" But alas she was in shock and my wit was not available.
My friend did say that she laughed when she got outside - figuring you gotta laugh or you'd cry. Needless to say they won't be going back there.
Her ds has a fabulous school bus driver who often rings on the weekend to see if he can go over and spend some time with her because she loves him so much.
When she dropped him off this afternoon she told me about what happened last time he visited:
They went to a local fish & chip shop to order some lunch and were waiting outside for their order. There was a man who had a dog and he asked ds if he'd like to pat it. Her ds said "It's a beautiful dog, I think it's got some Bull Mastiff in it" The driver said that the man totally astonished, looked down at ds crouching with the dog and said "I didn't think that 'they' could talk" Her ds promptly responded matter of factly " They can't, but they can bark"
She's still laughing.