My Lucky Day-by Kathy Higgins

      I have been working with families who have infants and toddlers with Down syndrome for 26 years. It started when I first came to The Children’s School for Early Development and I was asked to sit in on a group that our social worker Davida Levinson was...

Down syndrome awareness and acceptance-a father’s perspective.

Since Naomi's birth I see the world differently than I used to.  I never put much thought into how people with disabilities were treated prior to my daughter being born.  Every once in a while I might read a story or see a news segment about someone with a disability...

Five Instructional Strategies for Children with Down syndrome

      Children with Down syndrome are capable learners who are excited and eager to learn. They just need to be given the opportunity to excel.  They may learn at a slower pace, but are more than capable of learning. They are strong visual learners. This means that they...

Local Westchester fundraisers mean so much!

  Acceptance, generosity and kindness! Thank you Westchester community! We are so grateful for YOU!  We would like to thank our families who have had birthday parties recently, either for themselves or for their children.  Many asked their guests to donate to GiGi's Playhouse Westchester in lieu of gifts! A...

Leaps and Bounds stole my heart

by Nicole Greenberg, PT, DPT It’s hard to believe that a year ago I was volunteering at the Open House for GiGi’s Playhouse Westchester, introducing myself to the families that I would continue working with over the next 12 months.  Having the opportunity to lead the Leaps & Bounds program...

Guest Blogger: Catherine Graybosch, GiGi’s Playhouse Westchester board president

I recently came across a Tedx talk about how our society looks at and includes people with disabilities. It was eye-opening to see that we went from eliminating them from society by putting them in institutions to creating a “special” culture for them in schools, jobs and so forth.  While...

The Definition of the GiGi’s Playhouse Westchester Volunteer

Volunteer/ noun / vol.un.teer / va-len-tir A person who does work without getting paid to do it. That is a definition of the word volunteer according to Merriam-Webster. It is an accurate definition, but I think it’s missing an important piece...at least when defining our GiGi's Playhouse Westchester volunteers. Volunteerism is a...

Looking back and looking forward!

"February 14th 2014, 9:07PM Hi Everyone, Even if I have not met you all yet in person, I wanted to reach out to you about this amazing Down Syndrome Playhouse. It's called GiGi's playhouse; www.gigisplayhouse.org. I will attach information to this email. I am reaching out to you all to...
Owen Winner 10.15 kareoke

‘Best of All’ at GiGi’s Playhouse Westchester

“When you have a child with special needs, you might hear the words: limitations, impairments, disabilities, delays or challenges. And in the beginning you might think, What does this mean for my child? What does the future hold? While it may be easier to frame your child’s potential within these...

And they told two friends, and so on, and so on…

Who remembers that very old commercial for the shampoo Faberge Organics?  It was actually Heather Locklear (according to Google!) who was close up to the screen talking about how fast the word was spreading about this awesome shampoo..."and they told two friends, and so on, and so on".  Well, fast forward to...

Touching Moment of the Week

"Hello GiGi's Playhouse, Andie speaking." "What time are you open until today? We want to drop off some holiday gifts for you to give your kids at your holiday party." "Oh WOW! That's so nice! We're open until 1:00pm today. Who is this?  Can you tell me your name?" "Well...

We are open!!

We have had a lot happening at the Playhouse the past few months! From our Grand Opening, to new volunteers to finally getting to kick off our programs, it has been a great time for us here in Westchester! Our Grand Opening was a HUGE success! We are so thankful...