by Lori Riggs The bottom line: Isolated skills are pretty worthless. They only have meaning if they are put into a context of functional activity. That’s the message I wanted to get across. That’s it. I’m not much on elaboration, so if you “get it” already, you don’t need to read on. End of article….
by Lori Riggs You want to build a house, so you borrow a hammer. Every day you pull out your hammer and pound on something—anything—twice a day for two hours. And sometimes you just hold the hammer and look at it or set it close to a nail. Certainly at the rate of four hours…
Thoughts on factors influencing gross and fine motor development, with ramifications affecting cognitive function and language in developmentally challenged children. by Bob Doman I have observed a number of problems in our children whose overall development is slower than that of typically developing children, issues that are only indirectly associated with the actual neurological and…
by Sunette Payne, as told to Iliana Clift Elliot was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), which means that the left side of his heart, the side that receives oxygen-rich blood from the lungs and pumps it out to the body, was severely underdeveloped. In addition to this very severe heart defect, he also…
Robert J. Doman, Jr. “Hello, this is your captain speaking. Welcome aboard. We are presently flying at thirty-nine thousand feet on our flight from Atlanta to London. We are expecting a smooth flight and anticipate an on-time arrival in London at 10:05 PM GMT. We hope you enjoy your flight.” “Hello, this is your…
as told to Iliana Clift Years ago I hung a quote by the Roman orator Cicero on Marcus’s bulletin board that said, “The greater the difficulty…the greater the glory.” This quote describes our journey with Marcus quite well. When we first started the NACD program, he hardly had any speech at all. He was extremely…
by Carol Johnson, as told to Iliana Clift When I last wrote about Justin, he was thirteen and going into seventh grade in middle school. (*See link below.) He still mostly used a wheelchair, required a one-on-one aide at school, his vision was quite limited, and unless I used a huge marker board to help…
by Janine Little, as told to Iliana Clift It breaks my heart to say it, but before we started the NACD program Luke was like a wild animal. He dashed here and there, climbed on tables and cabinets, jumped off and started all over again. He rocked precariously on the seat and back of a…
Kaitlyn was eleven years old when she stumbled upon a book I was reading. She brought it to me and, as if she had just discovered a brand new planet, she exclaimed with a sparkle in her voice, “Mom, these kids are like me!” My heart skipped a beat— she was obviously ready to learn…
April 8th, 2014 The National Association for Child Development and the NACD Foundation Announce the Appointment of Kaitlyn and Lisa Law as NACD’s Ambassadors for Down Syndrome. We are happy to announce that Kaitlyn Law, a 23-year old young lady with Down syndrome, and her mother, advocate, and cheerleader, Lisa, have been appointed as the…