Hi, I’m Ella Davenport. I’m 4 ½ years old and I go to morning kindy 4 times a week which I just love and to WEIT (Wellington Early Intervention Trust) once a week. I have a brother Finn who’s 3 and we’re really good mates. I was pretty sick when I was born – I needed bowel surgery for hirschsprungs disease and heart surgery at Greenlane hospital when I was one. Now I’m fighting fit, although I do need to go into hospital next week for an operation as lately I’ve been putting things up my nose (mainly
pieces of foam and peas) and the doctor wants to have a look to see how much I’ve stockpiled up there!
Anyway, back to my busy life – I play soccer with other kids with special needs on Saturdays, I love swimming, reading books, drawing, and dressing up as a fairy and I’m especially looking forward to starting school in 6 months time. I’ll keep you posted as to how I get on once I’m there.
My name is Gabriel O’Connell and I’m 5 years old.
I’m going to Cashmere Ave School in Khandallah and am having so much fun. One of my favourite activities at school is handwriting, which I’ve got a certificate for.
Gabriel is doing very well at school he is writing his name and sentences independently. His speech has improved 10 fold with starting school. He has doubled the amount of words he can say and the clarty of his words has improved as well.
Physically he is stronger, with balancing, jumping, running and hopping all improving so much.
Gabriel uses numicon at present for his maths work and loves burying his face in a book.
He has 2 fantastic teacher aids and a brilliant class teacher and principal. All the children at Cashmere Ave are so welcoming, kind and caring.
Gabriel loves school and long may it last.
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Hi my name is Brendon, I am 6 yrs old (Feb 2004). I live on the Kapiti Coast with Mum (Kim), Dad (Colin) and Chris my 9 yr old brother.
I was born with an AVSD (or AV canal) and spent the first 2 months of my life in hospital (5 weeks in neonates & 4 weeks up in Auckland at the heart unit) which was a hellish time for my family as they dealt with the DS diagnosis as well as me being pretty sick but thankfully it has been onwards and upwards since then.
Although my speech is taking off now I took a while to learn to talk but thankfully Mum was a real believer in sign language and I have successfully used Makaton sign to help with communication since about age 18 mths.
I went to Montessori pre-school from 2 ½ to 5 yrs, I now go to school where I especially enjoy the alphabet, reading and learning on the computer – the playground is pretty cool too!
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I love music, my favourite groups are Hi 5 and the Beatles, I love to sing & dance along or join in the actions to favourite videos like Love to Sing, the Hooley Dooleys and Hi 5. My favourite TV programme is Blues Clues. Some of my favourite activities include jumping (esp. on a trampoline), slides & swings, throwing a ball (Mum thinks I should be the next Richard Hadlee as I've got such a good eye), doing puzzles, playing on the computer and swimming – I am still learning but the water is such great fun!My mum loves to meet and talk with other parents, she goes to most coffee mornings and we are regular attendees at WDSA events.
All the girls in my class are really nice and I have 3 really good friends. I do the same work as all the other girls but sometimes the teacher makes it a bit easier for me. If I get stuck my teacher aide or my friends help me. I go to swimming lessons at the weekend and play netball sometimes. My favourite things are Harry Potter, Jesse Macartney and Saddle Club. I look at the videos, read the books and listen to the talking books. I also like travelling with my family and I love going to Disneyland.
Daniel is 4 years old, he is full of mischief, very determined and independent. If we help him down the stairs he will go back up the stairs the minute you let go and walk down by himself! He is full of fun and laughs lots which endears other children to him at kindy but he won
He attends Totara Park kindy four mornings a week and we attend Wellington Early Intervention Trust one morning a week for therapy sessions, the physio has said Daniel has very good problem solving skills – i.e. if she sets a task for him he will usually find a way out of doing it! Daniel can’t wait to go to school with his brother next year and I believe he will tackle school with his abundant determination and joyful outlook and will do just fine.
Hi I’m Danyon Parker and I turned 11 on 5 March 2009 and started Maidstone Intermediate this year. I am making new school friends and learning lots of new things.
Favorite activities my nana Robyn takes me to are:-
Indoor Sport & Games for special needs group which I have been attending since 2004 We were very proud when I won a trophy for player of the year for soccer in 2007.
At the swimming pool nana teaches me water safety and how to swim and then we have lots of fun going down the yellow, black and blue slides, also climbing and sitting on the inflatables. When I competed in school swimming races I swam each length by myself
On fine days we go to the park where the ducks are with some bread and they waddle over to see me making lots of loud quacking sounds because they are hungry and happy I am going to feed them.
We also go to the playground where I whiz along on the flying fox, I zoom down the slide and on the swing, also climbing - I do all these lots and lots of times, it’s so much fun.
In 2008 nana Robyn nominated me for the Francis Clarke Memorial award because of my great achievements and I was a recipient in the 8-16 category. We went to Government House in Wellington and nana was very proud when I accepted 2 trophies, a certificate and rugby ball as my awards. My photo was in the Dominion and Upper Hutt Leader.
My awesome brother Shai - who turns 10 this April and I are good buddies and do lots together, he also helps me a lot.
Hi I am Matt Harris and am 19 years old in June 2004. I live with my Dad and my cat Tom on the Kapiti Coast. I love life and live an energetic life participating in lots of sporting and community activities.
Over the years I have played soccer, kiwi cricket, athletics, gym club and been a cub and a scout including going to the scout jamboree in 1999, and learned to swim and been on lots of walks and tramps in the mountains.
I go running most mornings to keep fit, swim and play bocce (Italian bowls) for the Kapiti Special Olympics Team. (Sports for people with an intellectually disability)
I participated in the Special Olympics NZ National games in 2001 and got three medals for all my swimming events. Since then I have received more medals and ribbons for other Regional sporting events. Its great fun!
I also enjoy tramping either day or overnight with my Dad. The longest trip was the 4 day trip over the Kepler track in Fiordland. Other long trips have been the Southern Crossing of the Tararua’s, and the Abel Tasman. Last year I went skiing on Mt Ruapehu and hope to go for another week again this year. In the holidays we do lots of camping and tramping trips. It’s great as I have now been to many beaches and other places around New Zealand
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I go to Paraparaumu College and am now in my sixth year there. My course is called TP – Transition Programme. It’s helping to prepare me and give me skills for my future life of independent living and paid employment. Also with my other special mates we go on trips around our community and get to know where everything is, and experience working at different places. I now spend two days a week at our large supermarket Pak’N Save stacking the shelves. This is a great place with friendly staff and I hope to get a paid job here when I leave college.
I go to church on Sundays and particularly enjoy the youth service with its great singing. I participate in the youth club activities and have lots of good friendly mates who I see also at college and in the community.
At home I enjoy listening to my music; my favorite at the moment is Westlife and Robbie Williams. I enjoy watching music TV shows such as Stars in their eyes, which I have taped and watch regularly.
Sadly my Mum got cancer soon after I was born and died when I started school at 5 years. Life has been hard for my Dad but since we moved from Wellington to the Kapiti Coast in 1996 he has been able to spend more time with me and helps me a lot with my activities.
In November 2002 I was at Government House and presented with a cup as a joint winner for the Francis Clarke Memorial Awards. These awards are to recognize and encourage achievements by people with Down syndrome. I was nominated by my sporting coach for my swimming and bocce achievements and also by my teacher for my consistent and hard work at college.
I hope my story will help and encourage you.
Martha Rose Johnson was born in Cambridge, UK, at some ungodly hour of the morning in January 2003. We were told she was Downs Syndrome just a few hours after her birth. The next few days are all now a bit of a blur. Lots of blood samples, heart scans, jolly midwifes, shocked family, grief, denial, ugly looking black stuff in nappies, and acute sleep deprivation.
Thankfully, Martha was in perfect health (even given the ugly looking black stuff in her nappy) and we were able to get home after only a few days and begin our new family life.
I'm writing this one and a half years later and I find it hard to recall all we had to go through. I think we were fortunate as Martha was healthy. On top of that we had the support of some very good friends, all of whom rushed to meet our new baby and all of whom fell in love with her immediately. It obviously wasn't all rosy, we had bad days, we had hurtful comments and we had a seemingly never ending run of medical appointments with very clinical doctors and over-compassionate nurses. But the things I remember most, the memories indelibly printed in my mind, are the things that perhaps every parent of any child remembers. I remember my lovely little baby girl who made me smile.
And today? Well, much has happened, we've moved to a new country on the other side of the World, like we've always dreamed of doing, Martha is crawling everywhere, emptying the contents of cupboards, and messing up our house. She slept the whole night through last night, which is a treat for us all. She's making signs that she's getting bored of crawling and thinks walking looks much more fun She's beginning to learn lots of new sounds and understand new words and she's taken to actually putting paint ON paper as opposed to in her mouth. Today is Friday so I'm at work and Beki and Martha have gone to playgroup this morning and are going swimming this afternoon.
It turns out we're pretty much like any normal family you can think of.
Here's a photo of Emily Verlinden with her NZ Idol idols!!!! Emily front row on the right!!
Emily was so excited to meet the top 5 idols in April - along with her brother Sam and cousin Chelsea.
Emily's favourite idols were Michael and Ben.
And here's one of her hugging BEN - NZ's first NZ IDOL!!! Lucky Em!!
Emily Verlinden 9 years old