Advice please

[BlueCornflower]

There is a girl with DS in my 5 year old DD's class. DD keeps questioning why the girl never answers her name for register, and why the teachers don't make a big thing of it. Please would you suggest some helpful non-biased things I can say to explain? Thank you.

Hi there
My dd2 has Down's and has just started local preschool - which has got me thinking about how the whole 'other children/parents understanding/coping with/ feeling comfortable with DS' thing is going to pan out. Hopefully someone with a school-age child will come along soon with their useful thoughts.

In the meantime.... do you know the girl's Mum? do you know if the Mum or the teachers have said anything to the class about Down's specifically or about the little girl generally? If you know the Mum, could you have a word with her about maybe how she explains the differences and what she would be comfortable for you to say to your dd? She will certainly have come across questions from other children before.

We have an older dd who obviously knows her sister has DS and knows a little about how that pans out in real life. We often tend to say things like 'dd2 takes a little bit longer to learn how to do things.' A little girl at preschool today asked me why I was carrying dd2 - I told her that dd2's legs aren't as strong as hers yet. The little girl nodded wisely and went on her merry way, waving bye to dd2 all the way down the path. Children are really cool at this age, and you just need to be matter of fact about things.

Sorry, rambling now! Hope that helps

Can't better the advice given by Nuru. It's amazing how sensible children can be if someone just explains things in a straightforward way. The idea that 'different is ok' is something many adults tend to struggle with, but children can find so much easier if they're taught well. Sounds like the school could do with explaining more to the children.

A friend of mine was born with very short arms and hands with no thumb (thalidomide). She goes into the local primary school regularly to talk to the children about it, and they're just really interested and want to know more. I wonder if the local Down's charity could arrange something similar?