Posts by Shannon Kerin

My name is Erin E. Mallicoat and I’m from Northbrook, Illinois. I’m 21 years old and I have one older brother, two of the sweetest dogs in the world, and I live with my awesome mom and dad! At the age of 2, I was diagnosed with Down Syndrome and Turner Syndrome. Even though I…

Before Finn was born I had all these fears and thoughts about his future, about my future. Would he make friends, go to school, hold a job, move out of our house? He arrived and my fears and thoughts had to change to focus on what was immediately in front of me. How long would…

How to Stay Active at Home Maintaining a healthy lifestyle for you and your family is challenging enough without the burden of COVID-19. It seems like most days are more work than play, and the last thing you want to do is add another thing to your list of “to-dos”. Make being active a lifestyle…

I have written many times about what GiGi’s means to me. Now officially five years in, I can say the playhouse has truly shaped who I am and recently I have gotten to witness the impact it has on my daughter. We learn so much from the kids and adults we work with, but also…

I’ve always been a fairly active individual. I used to run for myself – for my health, to clear my head, to listen to great music, to greet the day with exercise, to feel my heart beating. It wasn’t until Hudson was born that I chose to run for someone besides myself. Hudson was born…

I’m learning many things during the shutdown/quarantine, but one of the biggest pulls I didn’t expect was the ache due to missing our time at the playhouse. We’ve been going to GiGis Playhouse Deerfield since Conner was like, 2 weeks old. Fast forward a year and we haven’t seen our family in 2 months. That…

Children with Down syndrome often have a tendency to use one hand or the other in play, versus using both hands together. For example, they might use one hand to try to put a puzzle piece in a form board, without using the other hand to stabilize the form board. They need frequent reminders to…

Movin’ On Up One of the main goals in development is to move up against gravity from floor activities such as rolling, crawling and sitting to become a stander and walker. This includes going from belly to hands and knees, getting to a support to pull up to kneeling, and finally coming to stand. For…