i was talking to my mother in law yesterday and she told me this :when paul(her youngest son 11years old with DS)was young, doctors, and therapists told us not to talk to him in spanish(paul's dad is american-mexican)becuase it will confuse him, they told us don't let him do this and that, but tarc(local early education group)told us do whatever our guts tell us to do with paul. and now we are kicking his butt and pushing him to learn more because we didn't go with our gut feeling of his needs. we listen to doctors and therapists who doesn't know about paul as well as we did.
so she was encouraging me to do whatever my gut feeling tells me to do with mia, talk to her in japanese as i do with bubba, teach her and show her what letter A looks like as i do with bubba, she can look at it and remember it. so here comes my question, when it comes to your babies education, do you go for it with your gut feeling even tho doctors say not to? or you listen to them and back off from what your gut feeling telling you to do?

I say go with your gut. And too, in just the little bit of time as 11 years, MDs and therapists have learned more too. I don't expect you would find one today saying such ignorant things as don't let them be bi-lingual. From what i have encountered in the medical profession since Daniel was born, i find that they all say normal family life and routines, dealing with your special child as you do a typical child, is the way to go to help our little ones be all they can be.

Go with your gut!

For the most part, I go with my gut. Except when it's a medical situation that I know nothing about. BUT even then, I come here and get you all's opinion and then make a decision! For some reason, I trust those who've been there before more than the Dr.'s.

definitely go with your gut feeling

I wish that when Hannah was about 10months she was standing up against furniture but because she couldn't sit up they said i had to work on that first and I regret not pushing the standing as now she still isn't walking cos as soon as I got her to sit she never wanted to do anything else!!

Also I was told not to do certain puzzles with her but I ignored that too and now she can match pictures on puzzles which was something she couldn't do until i did these puzzles with her

Look at that Japenese woman we posted on here, she could speak English, French and Japenese and she had DS. That puts even me to shame as I can only speak English and thats my own language!!!

Gut feeling all the way! Samantha is spoken to in english, sign language and spanish (as her godmother is puerto rican and her family speaks to her in spanish)


Elizabeth

I feel mom's know best. They had said to put jon in a home and he would never walk or learn anything. Well look at him now. He can do more then even his dad thought he would be able to do. So I feel you go with your gut. I do what I feel is right and dont listen to them on that stuff.
Heidi
Jon's
Mom

Gut feeling! My parents went to Mexico last year and they were on a tour, across from them was a guy, in his 20's with DS and his father. They were Mexican and from California, anyway, my mom started a conversation with them and told them about Marty and the young man could speak Spanish and English, and my mom said pretty well also!