Why We Do What We Do: Monica
by Bob Doman
I just returned from my annual trip to the beautiful pastoral mountains of Transylvania. Once a year I travel to the family friendly resort Cheile Gradistei to see our Eastern European families whom we work with via Zoom throughout the year. Over the course of the three weeks, my staff and I met with about 50 families who were able to join us. Some of these families we have worked with for over a decade. One of these is the Spatariu family, who has done a terrific job with their lovely daughter, Monica. Monica is a model for families with children who have Down syndrome.
Monica is now thirteen, and we have been helping her since she was eleven months old. Monica is in Romanian public school, and her parents work with her around her mandatory school hours. Monica is and has always been in a typical class, and on recent national testing received all A’s. She is proud to be at the top of her English class at school. The only thing I heard regarding issues at school was that Monica tends to argue with the boys because she doesn’t like how they behave. I gave her a point for that. Monica, like many of my children over there, gives me the great compliment of working hard on her English at least partially so she can speak with me. I still can’t speak Romanian or Bulgarian or any of the other languages my kids over there can speak.
During Monica’s evaluation I asked if I could record her speaking English. I wanted to be able to share how well she was doing with her second language. Her English is already dramatically better than my Spanish was after two years of Spanish in high school and another in college. My intention was to ask her a simple question and record a brief sample of her English to share with our speech pathologist. As she often does, Monica surprised me with her response to a very simple question, “Monica, tell me about your cat.” I loved her response, which I think speaks volumes of what can be, should be and needs to be.
Our Eastern European families are helping to approach a tipping point in thier respective countries, demonstrating what special needs children, from those labeled as autistic to those with Down syndrome like Monica, can achieve.