Our very good friends, who also have a large family, adopted two boys with Down syndrome, each at birth, through private adoption. The boys have different birth families, one was a local teenager, and one was through interstate adoption. As I watch the boys grow and mature, I ‘m frequently surprised by the differences in their development, neither is considered to be Mosaic Down syndrome. This re-enforces for me, that a diagnosis at birth, doesn’t guarantee a child’s long-term abilities, each child is unique.

N is currently eight years old, he didn’t learn to walk until he was three. I was a little surprised, when during nursery duty at our homeschool enrichment day a few years ago, that A was taking steps at 18 months. A’s mom felt that he learned to walk much earlier than N due to his participation in a prototype tread mill study from University of Michigan teaching hospital. N also had many more health challenges, which could have contributed to his delayed gross motor skills.

Both N and A had atrioventricular septal defect with common valve orifice, which were surgically corrected shortly after their births. N was a very sickly infant, he was in and out of the hospital until he was about two and a half years old. He had heart problems, including pulmonary hypertension, two Ventricular Septal Defects, Mitral valve regurgitation, Tricuspid valve regurgitation, and right bundle block and endocarditis.

N also had problems eating so he had a g-tube until he was three years old and he ended up having a fundoplication at age one for severe reflux. N also suffered from chronic respiratory issues including pneumonia.

N has moderate hearing loss, wears hearing aids, and uses sign language and board maker pictures for the majority of his communication, but has good eyesight. A has very poor eyesight and mild hearing loss that his mom believes is mostly due to constant ear infections and fluid in his ears, due to malformation of his inner ear. A’s main form of communication is speech although he also knows sign language and can use the pictures.

N qualified for special education summer school, with speech therapy, but A didn’t qualify for anything. N’s IQ is 42 and A’s IQ is 49. N wasn’t fully potty trained until he was well over six years old, A is five and beginning to recognize urges to use the bathroom. N is consistently able to dress himself, A sometimes requires assistance. Both boys can run the microwave, TV, and DVD player.

A knows how to spell his name but cannot write or letters or name them. N can write his first and last name and his phone number. N knew his address for a while, but now he doesn’t. Neither boy knows shapes so their mom’s goal for the summer is to teach them. N can count to 30 and add single digits; he can say the alphabet and is memorizing words.

N has a big crush on his schoolteacher. He says he want to marry her and buy her a ring. He even kicked a male teacher that was standing to close to her and said “Mine.” A loves to go places, including the doctor and the dentist, while N is prone to total meltdowns.

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