{"id":941,"date":"2016-10-13T13:12:46","date_gmt":"2016-10-13T17:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/westchester\/?p=941"},"modified":"2016-10-13T13:12:46","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T17:12:46","slug":"syndrome-awareness-acceptance-fathers-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/westchester\/syndrome-awareness-acceptance-fathers-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"Down syndrome awareness and acceptance-a father’s perspective."},"content":{"rendered":"

Since Naomi’s birth I see the world differently than I used to. \u00a0I never put much thought into how people with disabilities were treated prior to my daughter being born. \u00a0Every once in a while I might read a story or see a news segment about someone with a disability accomplishing something amazing, but I always looked at it through the lens of “wow, they overcame that disability to accomplish a lot.” \u00a0Over the past four years my outlook has changed. \u00a0It isn’t about overcoming disabilities to accomplish something… it is simply accomplishing something because of ability.
\n\"naomi-and-josh-ellovich-for-joshs-blog-entry\"
\nWhen you have a child born with Down syndrome the first few weeks are filled with every doctor and therapist warning you about the dangers and risks that come with the extra chromosome. \u00a0It is enough to put a lot of doubt in your mind, and you begin to wonder “what will my child be able to accomplish?” \u00a0It is easy to\u00a0subconsciously begin to put up walls and barriers on
\n<\/a>what your child can achieve before you even get to know them. \u00a0The good news is, you quickly learn that the doctors, therapists, and even\u00a0you are wrong. \u00a0Your child won’t be restricted in what they can accomplish as long as you and the other adults around remove the guardrails and accept that they are just like any other child.<\/p>\n

The most eye opening moment for me as Naomi’s father was the first time we got together with some parents of older children with Down syndrome. \u00a0I quickly realized she’s just a kid. \u00a0She would become a kid who plays, a kid who jokes around, a kid who learns, and a kid who accomplishes. \u00a0That is what GiGi’s Playhouse does for parents. \u00a0It provides a place for us to learn by observation. \u00a0We get to see that just like anybody else, our children have abilities. \u00a0The fact that the Playhouse\u00a0programming grows with families into adulthood provides a continued learning experience for parents. \u00a0We get to see what the next phase of life will bring. \u00a0When Naomi was a baby, we quickly learned\u00a0that she would\u00a0sing and dance and potty train just like any other toddler. \u00a0Now that she’s a preschooler, we can see that she’ll read and do math in the future just like any other child. \u00a0And I’m sure when she’s a teenager we’ll learn that she’ll socialize and have a boyfriend just like any other teenager. Although I’m sure all dads are convinced their daughter won’t be allowed to date, whether she has Down syndrome or not!<\/p>\n

Four years after her birth, now when I look at Naomi, I think about everything she is going to accomplish because of her abilities. \u00a0GiGi’s Playhouse has provided me a window into her future and the possibilities are endless.<\/p>\n

Written by Josh Ellovich.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since Naomi’s birth I see the world differently than I used to. \u00a0I never put much thought into how people with disabilities were treated prior to my daughter being born. \u00a0Every once in a while I might read a story or see a news segment about someone with a disability accomplishing something amazing, but I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpo365_audiences":[],"wpo365_private":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[56,58,53,59,55,57,30,54,52,29,19],"class_list":["post-941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abilities","tag-acceptance","tag-accomplishments","tag-awareness","tag-daughter","tag-disability","tag-down-syndrome","tag-extra-chromosome","tag-father","tag-gigis-playhouse","tag-gigis-playhouse-westchester"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/westchester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/westchester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/westchester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/westchester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/westchester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/westchester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/westchester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/westchester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/westchester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}