One Proud Mama

Myles had his first swimming lesson tonight and I am on cloud nine with pride. I had wanted to get both Sydney and Myles in a family swimming class this summer, but the one I was looking at was full for both sessions. The next option for Myles was a class with his same age peers where parents did not have to participate. We decided to give it a try with the thought that either Gilby or I could be with Myles during each class as we thought he would most likely need more support than the teacher would be able to give.

We went tonight with the plan that I would swim with Sydney in the free play area and Gilby would be in the water with Myles. When Myles and the other five kids in the class sat along the edge of the pool, Gilby backed up and made an on-the-spot decision just to see how he would do alone. He did GREAT! The only time Gilby spoke up was at the very beginning when each kid was telling the teacher his/her name. Myles cannot yet say his name, so Gilby chimed in from behind, but otherwise Myles was all on his own. He paid attention when the other kids were introducing themselves, followed all of the teacher's directions, stayed on task, tried all of the skills, never once attempted to run away, and had a lot of fun. He would occasionally stand up and look around for me or Gilby, shouting "Mama, Dada," but when he saw one of us we would just wave and motion for him to sit back down, which he did each time. After the class I introduced myself to his teacher, and asked how she thought Myles did. She was so positive about his participation and said she saw no reason based on this first class that we would need to provide extra support. I am so proud of him.

Raising a child with Down syndrome has many unique challenges, one of them being the balance between advocating for and providing opportunities of full inclusion with his same age peers, while at the same time wanting to protect him should he not be able to successfully participate at their level. Gilby and I support full inclusion in all areas of life as a philosophy, but putting it into practice can sometimes be scary...more for me than for Myles. We're only 4 years into this journey as his parents and I know there are many, many more learning experiences to come, but tonight something small, but significant happened. No extra supports, no therapists, no special education teacher, no written plans or goals, no parent by his side, nothing different than any of the other kids, and he did great.